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A Retrospect and Forecast: Being a review of 
the past attitude of the Vatican towards 
civil and religious government, and 
an analysis of her latest utter- 
ance upon these matters as 
related to the Euro- 
pean War. 



DR. PERCY T. MAGAN 



" If there has ever been, and if there still be a question reaching far into 
the future, it is the question of church power." — Hon. W. E. Gladstone. 

" Take thou the tiara adorned with the triple crown, and know that thou 
art the Father of princes and of kings, and art the Governor of the world." — 

Coronation Service of the Pontiffs. 



SOUTHERN PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION 

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE 

Atlanta, Georgia Fort Worth, Texas 

Copyrighted, 1915. by PERCY T. MAGAN. 



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V\z3 

CONTENTS 



Chapter . Title Page 

I. '^What Meaneth the Noise of this Tumult" 5 

' II. ^' I Will Exalt My Throne" . . . 20 

III. " The Hammer of the Whole Earth " . 28 

IV. " As Iron that Breaketh All These " . . 32 
V. '' They Shall Not Cleave One to Another " 38 

VI. ^' And I Saw a Beast of Prey Come Up " . 43 

VII. '^The Woman Which Reigneth Over the 

Kings of the Earth " . . . . 50 

VIII. ^' Who IS Like Unto THE Beast?" . .55 

IX. " That Woman Jezebel " . . . . 61 

X. '' I Gave Her Space to Repent, But She Re- 
pented Not " 66 

XI. " Wounded to Death " 81 

'XII. " Mystery, Babylon THE Great " . . 89 

XIII. ''With Violence Shall that Great City 

Babylon BE Thrown Down " . . Ill 



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German Artillery Bombarding Rheims 



CHAPTER I 



"WHAT MEANETH THE NOISE OF THIS 
TUMULT?" 

EVER since that sultry summer afternoon when the 
roar of cannon around ill-fated Liege announced 
that Europe at last had crossed the Rubicon, men and 
women everyv^^here have ponderingly inquired in the 
language of Eli, the aged seer, ''What meaneth the 
noise of this tumult?'' The blast of the bugles resounded 
around the earth calling mighty nations to the fray. 
The most costly, the most hideous, the most destruc- 
tive war of all the ages was on. Men gasped and held 
their breath, stunned as it were, at the appalling sud- 
denness and terribleness of it all. 

In a moment of time all things seemed to have been 
thrown out of their natural harmony and precipitated 
into a horrible melting-pot. The fires of war had been 

(5) 



The Vatican and the War 



lighted — on a scale infinitely 
more vast and terrible than 
ever before in the history of 
the world. Men knew that 
the most fearful, the bloodi- 
est holocaust of all times 
was about to be staged. 
They thoroughly realized 
that the mightiest destruc- 
tion of homes and farms, of 
villages and of cities, the 
world had ever seen was now 
to commence. Full well men 
understood that a killing, the 
most gigantic of all the ages, 
was to be enacted. In their 
minds they conceived, in 
part at least, how sickening 
the toll of the war would be. 
In this they were not de- 
ceived, for murder, lust, and 
rapine have prevailed on a 
scale unparalleled in the 
history of any war between 
civilized nations during the 
last three hundred years. The flight and continued 
voluntary exile of thousands of Belgian refugees reveals 
the awful situation in that unhappy land. There is 
no historical parallel in modern times for the flight of 
so large a part of a nation before the invader. 

Men asked themselves: Is this the baptizing where- 
withal the twentieth century is to be baptized? All the 
hopes which had been so fondly builded upon the peace 
societies, the Hague Tribunal, arbitration treaties, 
upon the religion, culture, and civilization of a refined 
and enlightened age, had been stricken to the dust, 
and the Old World, in less time than it takes to tell it, 




Copyright by International News Service 

Wogo Tankositsch, who laid the plot 
for the assassination of Archduke Ferdi- 
nand, which brought on the European 
war. 



'^The Noise of this Tumult'^ 




Belgian refugees 

had, to use the expression of Lord Roseberry, '^rattled 
into barbarism." 

So men have been perplexed, and many a heart 
has cast about in an endeavor to find out whether these 
wars and rumors of wars are those foretold in Scripture, 
or whether they are only accidental and uncorrelated 
events. The spirit of many a man has been set to think- 
ing and wondering whether indeed the judgments of 
God are abroad in the land. It is with the hope that 
some of these questions may in a simple manner be 
answered from the Word of God, and that the times 
in which we live may be pointed out and made clear, 
that these lines are written. 

To many the events of the world's history appear 
only as a tangled mass altogether without form and 
void. To such the annals of mankind are but the weary 
record of one political or ecclesiastical intrigue after an- 
other; of the selfish graspings first of this nation or sect, 
and then of that; of the rise and fall of dynasties, mon- 
archs, and prelates; and of war following war in quick 
succession, with all its attendant misery and woe and its 



8 The Vatican and the War 

train of shattered circles, broken hearts, and cruel death. 

It is only too true that gazed upon from that angle 
of vision the story of our race soon palls upon the mind, 
and the past brings only a sickening sensation which in 
turn causes to be inborn within us a deep desire for the 
awakening of a holier day. 

But there is a better angle of view from which to 
study the world-shaping events of history. There is 
a divine philosophy in this science. History is not a 
dead letter of events. It contains both letter and spirit; 
and while the letter killeth, the spirit giveth life. 

God is in all history, and the print of his hand and 
the mark of his stately step can be traced throughout 
its pages. And when God is seen and acknowledged 
and proclaimed in all the affairs of men, churches, and 
nations, the tangled mass will be unraveled. 

We may go down into the amphitheater of history, 
we may view the struggles of men and of nations, we may 
watch them developing their political, diplomatic, and 
ecclesiastical schemes and plans, and joining battle in 
violent collision in legislative halls and on fields of blood, 
and our ears may shrink from the strange din of arms 
— '^yet if we will only search and see, we can everjrv^here 
discover the majestic form of the God of all the earth.^^ 

And the Bible, the revealed Word and will of God, 
calls for and substantiates this view. Six times in two 
short chapters of the book of the prophet Daniel, in 
slightly varying language, is the truth expressed that 
^Hhe Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and 
giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over 
it the basest of men.'' Dan. 4: 17, 25, 26, 32, 37; 5: 21. 

And Job wrote: 

"With God is might and sufficiency: the beguiled and the be- 
guiler are his. Counselors he leadeth captive, and judges he maketh 
distracted. The authority of kings he dissolveth, and bindeth their 
loins with a cord. He leadeth the chief officers of the state captive; 
and stout warriors he overthroweth. He bewildereth the speech of 
the trusty statesman. He taketh away the wisdom of the senators. 



''The Noise of this TumuW 



9 



He poureth contempt upon the nobles, and unstringeth the girdle of 
the stout-hearted. He discloseth the recesses of darkness, and drag- 
geth the death-shade mto dayhght. He letteth the nations grow 
licentious and destroyeth them. He enlargeth them and giveth them 
quiet. He bewildereth the judgment of the leaders of the people 
of the land, and causeth them to wander in a pathless desert; they 
grope about in darkness, even without a glimpse. Yea, he maketh 
them to reel like the drunkard." — Job 12: 16-23, translation of John 
Mason Good, London, 1812. 

All things in history will then be seen to have been 
^'curiously made" by the Maker of history to subserve 
in the end the interests of his divine will. All reveal 




Fighting with bayonet and hand grenades 

the forwarding of the great purpose of heaven — the glory 
of God and the redemption of lost mankind. If we would 
rightly interpret history our ej^es must be kept steadily 
fixed on the great plan of salvation. But few writers 
of history have written with this in view. As a rule, 
the first thing that history should have shown is the 
last thing that it has shown. 

We Have Fallen Upon Evil Days 

Today we are living in mighty times. We have fal- 
len upon evil days, when, despite our boasted spirit 
of humanity and civilization, more flesh and blood is 



10 



The Vatican and the War 



being sacrificed upon the altar of Mars than ever before 
in the carnage-stained history of this old, unhappy 
world. From their pinnacle of pomp and pride, of ease, 
luxury, and material welfare, the nations of today have 
looked down with unmingled scorn and contempt upon 
the barbaric ages of the past. But all the butcheries 
of that king of Assyria who claimed that he had subdued 



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German troops in the streets of a burning town 

the earth so thoroughly that ^^ there was none that moved 
the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped," dwindle 
into trifling insignificance with what is taking place to- 
day on both the Eastern and Western battle fronts. 
No war of Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian head of 
gold of Daniel's prophetic image, compares in propor- 
tion or importance with the happenings around Ostend 
and Ypres, where the slain of Teuton, Frank, and Saxon 
have choked great waterways. What comparison is 
there between the capture of Babylon by Cyrus the 
Persian and the sack of Louvain by the Germanic hosts? 
The ruins of Rheims, the desolation of Termonde, and 



"The Noise of this TumulV 11 

the blackened ashes of Lille cannot claim much favor- 
able comparison beside the deeds of Darius the Mede 
or those of Alexander the Great. The wars of the mighty- 
Julius Caesar pale into insignificance and are mere pig- 
mies beside those now taking place in the theater of 
war on French and Belgian soil. The armies of Charles 
the Fifth and Philip the Second would hardly make a 
^^reconnaissance in force" when compared with the 
titanic armies now locked in a death-grapple on the 
fields of Europe. The campaigns of the first Napoleon 
almost lose their place in history beside that mighty 
line of battle which sways and rolls forth and back from 
Switzerland to the North Sea; from Galicia to the 
waters of the Baltic, to say nothing of the far-flung 
battle fine of the Italian hosts, or that of the fighting 
hordes on the Gallipoli Peninsula. 

"Standeth God Within the Shadow" 

What do these things mean? What place have they 
in the great drama of earth's story? Does the One who 
sitteth in the heavens take note of them? Does he who 
sitteth in the circle of the earth, who wrote in his book 
about the wars of the ancients, take no account of this 
the greatest toll of human life ever taken by the holocaust 
of battle? Does God, who once said that he ruled in 
the kingdoms of men, and appointed over them whom- 
soever he would, pass carelessly by the greatest tragedy 
that has ever befallen the sons of Adam? It cannot be 
that he does. It seems impossible that the inspired 
Scripture which foretold the wars of Babylon, Medo- 
Persia, Greece, and Rome should have made no note of 
this the mightiest conflict that has ever crimsoned the 
soil of earth. It seems incredible that a struggle which 
means so much in woe to so many millions of earth's 
sons and daughters should mark no epoch in the history 
of this world. Nor is this idea uncommon. 



''The Noise of this TumulV 13 

"Armageddon— And After" 

In a recently issued work, running under the above 
title, Dr. W. L. Courtney, the editor of the London 
Fortnightly Review, has the following significant para- 
graph, which is indicative of some of 'the thoughts which 
are passing through the minds of thinking men: 

"The newspapers have lately been making large quotations 
from the poems of Mr. Rudyard Kiphng. They might, if they had 
been so minded, have laid under similar contribution the Revela- 
tion of St. John the Divine. There, too, with all the imagery usual 
to the Apocalyptic literature, is to be found a description of vague 
and confused fighting, when most of the kings of the earth came 
together to fight a last and desperate battle. The seven angels go 
forth, each armed with a vial, the first poisoning the earth, the sec- 
ond the sea, and the third the rivers and fountains of waters, the fourth 
the sun. Then out of the mouth of the dragon, of the beast, and of 
the Antichrist come the lying spirits which persu de the kings of the 
earth to gather all the people for that great day of God Almighty 
'into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.' Translated 
into our language the account might well serve for the modern as- 
semblage of troops in which nearly all the kingdoms of the earth 
have to play their part with few and not very important exceptions. 
It is almost absurd to speak of these events as though they were 
merely incidents in a great and important campaign. There is noth- 
ing in history like them so far as we are aware. In the clash of the 
two great European organizations — the Triple Alliance and the 
Triple Entente — we have all those wild features of universal chaos 
which the writer of the Apocalypse saw with prophetic eye as usher- 
ing in the great day of the Lord, and paving the way for a new heaven 
and a new earth." 

While Dr. Courtney's interpretation of the scrip- 
ture referred to in the above citation, may not be strictly 
correct, it is of value, nevertheless, in proof of the conten- 
tion that men are beginning to believe that the Bible 
is not altogether mute upon the subject of the present 
war. Certain it is that much of the Bible is taken up 
with the story of the wars of nations, or with prophetic 
utterances concerning conflicts which were to come. 
And it cannot be but that this — the greatest of them 
all, up to the present time — is also spoken about in 
Holy Writ. 



14 The Vatican and the War 

"That Nation . . . Will 1 Judge" 

There can be nothing more certain from the Sacred 
Writings than that the Lord keeps an account with 
churches and nations as well as with individuals. Back in 
the days of the patriarch Abraham the Lord said: '^Know 
of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that 
is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict 
them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom 
they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they 
come out with great substance. And ... in the 
fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the 
iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full, ^^ 

Now the Amorites were not only a nation, they were 
also a church — a heathen church. With them, religion 
and the state were one and the same thing, indissolubly 
bound together. Religion with them was a thing ad- 
ministered by the government. Individual conscience 
was unrecognized by those heathen people. By the ar- 
bitrary power of the government the creed and tenets of 
the form of worship which was thought best for the peo- 
ple, were formulated; and by law every man was bound 
to worship according to such creed and tenets. 

There are two things therefore which stand out 
clearly from this scripture: First, that God keeps an ac- 
count with nations and churches, for the Amorites could 
not be dispossessed of their land and heritage by the 
people of Israel until the measure of their iniquity was 
full. Second, there comes a time when the account of 
nations and sects is closed, and then, at that time, that 
nation and church is judged and dealt with by the 
Lord. The Amorites were notorious for their gross im- 
moralities and their sensual idolatries. In these things 
lay their glaring sins rather than in governmental short- 
comings. It was their sins as a church rather than their 
sins as a government that were damning them. But at 
this time that people had not filled up the cup of their 



"The Noise of this Tumult" 15 

iniquity, and until their corrupt ways had reached a 
certain mark which God had fixed he would not send forth 
any decree for their annihilation. A loving God was 
willing to bear with the sins of that church and nation 
until the fourth generation, and then, if there was no 
change for the better, his judgments were to be visited 
upon them. 

The Punishment of the Hebrew Church 

All through the history of the children of Israel the 
same truth is revealed. Not only did God punish in- 
dividual Hebrews for their own private sins; but the 
nation of Israel as a nation, the church of Israel as 
a church, suffered visitations of divine wrath whenever 
their iniquities reached a point too great to warrant 
further forbearance from God. Over and over again in 
the book of Judges there are recorded expressions simi- 
lar to the following: 

"And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and 
forgat the Lord their God, and served Baalim and the groves. 
Therefore the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he 
sold them into the hand of Chushan-rishathaim king of Mesopo- 
tamia: and the children of Israel served Chushan-rishathaim eight 
years. And when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord 
raised up a dehverer to the children of Israel, who deUvered them, 
even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother." Judges 
3:7-9. 

Now the worshiping of Baalim and the groves was a 
religious act. Hence it was their church sins, if the ex- 
pression may be allowed, rather than their civil crimes, 
for which as a body they were suffering condign punish- 
ment. 

God Keeps an Account With Nations and Churches Today 

In this day and generation, as much as then, the 
King of kings keeps an account with all the nations. 
While his mercy is tendered with calls to repentance, 
this account will remain open. But there comes a day 
when the figures have piled up to a certain amount which 



16 The Vatican and the War 

God has fixed, and then it is that the ministry of his 
wrath commences. Then the account is closed and the 
Saviour pleads no more in their behalf. 

The nations and churches of today have been' the 
beneficiaries of wondrous mercies from on high. Great 
light has been shed from the pages of God's Holy Book, 
which has shone into the hearts of men. Well may it 
be asked: How has this light been received and heeded? 
Do holy living, humility of life, and unselfishness of soul 
mark the nations and churches of the present day? 
Where is the line of demarcation between the church- 
member and the worldling? Do self-seeking, pride, 
arrogance, and greed mark the life of church-member as 
much as that of sinner? In these days of material 
wealth and splendor is God remembered or has he almost 
been forgotten? Is religious life as it was in the olden 
time, or has it become mere theory and cold philosophy? 
On this point the words of a noted British publicist 
will be of interest: 

"Nature allows things to go on until they come to a head and 
disease breaks out. Then the body either throws them off, or the 
patient succumbs. 

"This war comes as a divine judgment — the day of settHng of 
accounts — and not to the Germans alone. It will punish us for- 
our worship of the golden caK, and the brazen image; will tend to 
shatter the self-complacency and the seK-absorption of the univer- 
sity professor with his remoteness from the real human interest — 
the things which spring from the heart — and will scatter much of 
the shallow buffoonery of pubhc life. For the soulless mind the set- 
tlement is at hand." — Sidney Whitman, 

"The Bounds of their Habitation" 

In the book of the Acts of the Apostles it is written 
that God ''hath made of one blood all nations of men 
for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath deter- 
mined the times before appointed, and the bounds of 
their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply 
they might feel after him, and find him, though he be 
not far from every one of us.'' God, then, has a purpose in 



The Noise cf this TumuW 



17 



permitting nations to exist. He determines the time 
when nations shall rise and fall; he decrees the bounds 
of their habitations — and he does it all with one great 
thought in mind — ^Hhat they should seek the Lord.'^ 
When nations in pride and arrogance turn their 
backs upon the Lord, and spurn his laws and ways, their 
account on the heavenly books will be closed and divine 
judgments will be visited upon them. 

Can it be that the present titanic struggle in Eu- 




Sinkins; of the "Lusitania" 

rope is a judgment of God? Can it be that through this 
agency God is calling upon nations, churches, and men 
and women to repent and turn to him before the 
accounts are finally closed? Certain it is that God does 
send judgments in the hope that the very presence of 
these may lead men to turn to him, for it is written by 
an ancient seer: 



"With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my 
spirit within me will I seek thee early : for when thy judgments are in 
the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." Isa. 
26:9. 



18 



The Vatican and the War 



"The Curse Causeless Shall Not Come'' 

All these are weighty questions and well worthy of 
the thought of serious men. These are among the 
real things worth 
studying in connec- 
tion with the present 
struggle. Much time 
has been spent dis- 
cussing the size and 
equipment of the 
various armies par- 
taking in the fray. 
Much has been writ- 
ten concerning the 
ingenious- mechanism 
of the different pat- 
terns of rifles and 
quick-firing guns; 
men are keenly inter- 
ested in the muzzle- 
velocity and destruc- 
tive energy developed 
by the mortars, how- 
itzers, and other types of mighty cannon. Aeroplanes, 
submarines, and battleships are much studied and ad- 
mired. The merits of the different generals in the field 
are subjects of common comment and conversation. 
But all these things are more or less immaterial and 
superficial. There are questions connected with the 
present war incomparably greater, immeasurably higher, 
infinitely deeper, and eternally more vast than any of 
these. 

A dreadful curse is upon the earth. What are the 
causes of it? Are not the words of Solomon, the sage 
of Israel, as true today as when he wrote his book of 
Proverbs? ^^As the bird by wandering, as the swallow 
by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come." Has the 



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The Noise of this TumuW 



19 



world reached the time foretold by the prophet Hosea 
when he said: 

"The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are 
come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is 
mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred." Hosea 
9:7. 

And not only are the deeper causes of this scourge 
well worthy of our thought, but so also are the real things 
which may establish themselves in the world when the 
strife has stilled. Whether one side or the other gains 
or loses this or that piece of territory is not of itself 
a matter of prime importance. Will the close of the war 
witness the establishment of great and good reforms 
or will it see the revival of old errors put forth as panaceas 
bringing peace? Will churches call m.en to repentance 
or will they busy themselves with efforts to reform 
governments and establish rehgious things on a civil 
basis? These are the weighty problems well worthy of 
our thought. Let every soul ponder upon the mighty 
question: "What meaneth the noise of this tumult f'^ 




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The Swiss Guard at the Vatican 

CHAPTER II 

"] WILL EXALT MY THRONE'' 

A LUST for empire and world dominion — each one 
of the Great Powers striving to exalt his throne — 
is the real cause at the bottom of the present struggle in 
Europe. An innate desire for self-exaltation possesses 
the soul of each of the belligerents. 

On the part of the Vatican there is a determination 
to thrust herself into such a position between the bel- 
ligerents that she will in a measure have brought about 
a restoration of her old-time power and glory. She will, 
in part at least, have reestablished her claim to possess 
a power and authority superior to that of the kings and 
princes. And she will use this power to force her re- 
ligion and creed upon the inhabitants of the world. 
One of the mottoes of the Roman CathoHc Church is 
^'semper eadem^'— always the same. To bring the world 
beneath her sway politically and religiously, is the un- 
dying purpose of the Vatican. Rome, in a recently 
issued papal encyclical, declared that the "root cause'' 
of the war is that her theories in regard to the rela- 
tion of civil government to religion have been abandoned 
by the nations. 

(20) 



"7 Will Exalt My Throne'' 21 

Fortune, apparently, in one way or another, has 
smiled upon some of the Great Powers more than upon 
others. These have gathered unto themselves much 
of this earth and the things which pertain thereto. 
Such fear that if they 'peaceably permit any of their 
neighbors to share in their acquisitions it will mean their 
own undoing in the terrific and nerve-racking race for 
national and international supremacy. They are afraid 
if they surrender even a part of what they possess they 
will in time lose all and sink into insignificance and na- 
tional decrepitude. 

Others of the Great Powers have not been so fortu- 
nate as their neighbors. They do not possess as many 
or as flourishing colonies or as much material wealth. 
Beheving themselves to be as well quahfied as other 
aggregations of mankind to enjoy and administer such 
possessions, they are determined to secure by force of 
arms what they consider their just share. * ' Earth-hunger' ' 
is a disease connnon to all the Great Powers. They 
have all been suffering from the malady for some time, 
and by 1914 the fever was running so high that an 
eruption was due to appear. 

While possibly no one of the great nations would 
confess to a desire for ^' world empire," yet the actions 
of many, if not all of them, give evidence that the seeds 
of that ailment are still germinating. No one is in the 
least particular about asking the other how this or that 
move will suit him. The thirst for more of this earth 
and its riches must be slaked and satiated at any cost. 
Material greatness and power are the goal. The right 
or wrong of things enters but little, as a rule, into the 
count. 

Of all the worldly lusts to which the mind of man is 
heir, the lust for universal empire, civil or religious, is 
the strongest. To the unregenerate heart there is nothing 
like it. By its side the possession of gold and silver 
pales into insignificance. Only a few bold spirits have 



The Vatican and the War 



ever dared even to 
conceive of this 
mightiest of human 
ambitions. It is truly 
a game for kings and 
popes to play, and 
few even of these 
have had the cour- 
age to play it. 
Nebuchadnezzar, Al- 
exander the Great, 
Augustus Caesar, and 
Napoleon Bonaparte 
have each in turn as- 
pired to the pinnacle 
of world dominion. 
This same lust for 
power and universal 
empire dominates the 
great nations of to- 
day. 

The Right to Universal 
Empire 

The only One who 

holds inherent right to universal empire is the Maker 

and Creator of the universe. To him by virtue of his 

creative power belongs the right to reign — to reign over 

all the earth and all mankind. For the Scripture says : 

"For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and 
that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, 
or dominions, or principahties, or powers: all things were created 
by him, and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things 
consist." Col. 1: IG, 17. 

From this it is clear that all thrones, dominions, 

principalities, and powers are created by the Lord. 

His, therefore, is the right to prescribe the extent and 
limits of their powers. 




Alexander the Great viewing the body of the Persian 
King E>arius 



"/ Will Exalt My Throne'' 23 

Nevertheless, in the very dawn of time an attempt 
was made to wrest this universal sovereignty from the 
Creator. The story is familiar to most of us that Satan 
was an angel of light, and that he fell from his high estate 
and was cast out of heaven. But the cause of his being 
thus degraded is but little known or understood. Con- 
cerning this the Scripture states: 

'/How art thou fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morn- 
ing! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken 
the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into 
heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also 
upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the iiorth: I will 
ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. 
Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit." 
Isa. 14:12-15. 

Lucifer was cast out of heaven because he had said, 
^^I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. . . . 
I will be like the Most High." In other words, the thing for 
which Satan was expelled from heaven was his arbitrary 
attempt to usurp the throne of God. He had attempted 
to make himself ruler over the angels of heaven. He 
had undertaken to do this without ascertaining from the 
other inhabitants of heaven whether they cared to have 
him rule over them or no. It was because of this deter- 
mination to usurp authority, to make himself a ruler 
in heaven without the consent of the governed, that 
Satan was cast out from above. This was the origin of 
that wicked principle of arbitrary rule and authority 
which has been seen in so many rulers and nations from 
that day down to this. 

Mark it, Satan did not say, "I will exalt myself," 
but ^^ I will exalt my throne J ^ In the very nature of things 
a throne signifies government — governmental power. 
Therefore Satan's proclamation was that he intended 
to set up a government of his own in place of the gov- 
ernment of God. Moreover his plan was to set up his 
government arbitrarily — '^I will exalt." He did not 
propose this prerogative for himself by the suffrage of 



24 The Vatican and the War 

his fellows. He had determined to make himself abso- 
lute sovereign of the universe by his own despotic power 
— absolute, despotic monarchy was then Satan's model 
and ideal of government. 

It was for this principle and purpose that he fought 
against God and against Christ, and against the angels 
of Christ. And it is for this principle and this purpose 
that, directly and through instrumentalities, he has been 
contending against Christ and the church of Christ 
ever since '^he was cast out into the earth.'' 

And this is made clear from the words in the Scrip- 
ture concerning Satan: ^^Thou that didst weaken the na- 
tions." Satan is the one who has instigated the rulers 
of the nations to acts of aggrandizement and of arbi- 
trary rule; and, in the end, these things all bring weakness 
to a nation. Hence, of him it is said: ^'Thou that didst 
weaken the nations." 

"An Extremely Impious Rebel" 

After the flood it was divinely appointed that the 
sons of Noah should, although they all spoke the same 
language, journey to different parts of the earth and dwell 
there as separate and distinct nations. Thus it is written: 

"These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their genera- 
tions, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the 
earth after the flood." Gen. 10: 32. See also Gen. 10: 5, 18, 20. 

For this division of the earth into nations there ex- 
isted in the mind of God a mighty reason, and one which 
is of vital import to the people of the world today. The 
Scripture record tells how, as they journeyed, they 
found a plain in the land of Shinar ^'and they dwelt 
there." They had been told to go on and scatter abroad, 
but instead of doing this they remained together in one 
company in the land of Shinar. There they built a city 
and a tower, and said: '^Let us make us a name, lest we 
be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." 
The Lord had told them to scatter abroad. They de- 



/ Will Exalt My Throne'' 



25 



termined in spite of this to remain together under one 

name and as one nation. Then the Lord said: 

"Behold the people is one, and they have all one language; and 
this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, 
which they have imagined to do." Gen. 11: 6. 

Therefore the Lord confounded their language and 

scattered them abroad upon the face of the earth. The 

Almighty in his wisdom understood that if there was 

but one nation in the earth, its power would be so great 

that its rulers would be restrained from nothing, and the 

situation of mankind in general would be intolerable. 




The dispersa] at the Tower of Babel 

Now why did God visit his displeasure in such a 
drastic manner upon the builders of this tower? Why 
should he so signally manifest his wrath by confounding 
their language so that they were obliged to leave ^'off 
to build"? God certainly knew that, build as they 
would, it was utterly impossible for them to construct a 
tower whose top would reach unto heaven. He was 
aware that this object never could have been attained 
even if their speech should not have been confounded. 
At best the attempt would have been futile. 

The visitation at Babel was a preventive measure 
interposed by God to make it impossible for the human 
family to pursue a certain policy. It was to restrain 
them from doing certain things which they had imagined 
to do. 

What now was that policy? What had they conceived 



23 The Vatican and the War 

in their imaginings which God proposed to restrain? 
Why were they restrained at that time and restrained 
for all time? 

The leader in this rebellion was Nimrod, whose name 
signifies ^Hhe extremely impious rebel.' ^ Why was Nim- 
rod a rebel, and against whom was he rebelling? God 
had told the descendants of Noah to scatter abroad 
on the face of the whole earth. Nimrod and his followers 
determined to disobey this command, and instead of 
founding many nations to found but one and make 
themselves "si name, lest we be scattered abroad." The 
city which they designed to build was to be the capital 
of this world-wide empire, and the tower or temple 
was to be the place from whence the tenets and doc- 
trines of the one state-controlled heathen religion were 
to be promulgated and enforced upon all the sons of 
men. 

Such then was their scheme: one universal empire; 
one heathen monarch to reign over it; one capital city 
from which his decrees were to emanate to the entire 
globe; one tower or idolatrous temple from which his 
heathen religion was to be disseminated to all mankind. 

Satan himself was the father of this idea. Fasci- 
nating reasons could be advanced to prove its great 
worth : If there were but one nation there could be no war, 
and thus much sorrow and bloodshed would be avoided. 
If there were but one absolute monarch ruling over the 
entire world there could be no distracting differences in 
law and policies and the like; thus men could live in 
quietness and peace, and enjoy prosperity. 

If that one king should stand at the head of the 
authorized state religion there could be no clashing of 
creeds or warring of religious factions. 

The genius of the thought involved in the whole 
scheme is found in the name of the city and kingdom. 
At the present time the word Babel signifies "confusion," 
because of what occurred at that place. Originally 



"7 Will Exalt My Throne'' 27 

it meant the ^'Gate of God." The same root word 
is rendered '^ Babylon." That name to the ancient 
Babylonians never signified ^'confusion." Nebuchad- 
nezzar never went up and down the world proclaiming 
that he was king of "confusion." 

It was the devil's counterfeit of the gate and road to 
heaven. It was his endeavor to accomplish on earth 
what he had failed to accomplish in heaven. But God 
foresaw that it could only result in the very opposite 
of all this. He knew that instead of peace and lib- 
erty, it meant bloodshed and despotism. Satan originated 
the vast scheme so that whenever and wherever some 
soul should arise to teach the true religion of God he 
could be crushed at a blow. 

That deep-rooted plot was nipped in the bud — not 
simply for the time being, but for as long as the world 
stands. The confounding of the language, the intro- 
duction of different tongues, was God's method of for- 
ever checkmating the world empire — the world-religion 
plan. Forever the different languages were to prove 
a barrier to world-empire in either church or state. In 
God's goodness he did it so that in the ages to come, 
when his worshipers were persecuted in one land they 
could flee for safety to another. So that when laws re- 
stricting hberty of conscience were enacted in one 
kingdom, another could extend to the oppressed an 
asylum and a sanctuary. 

Foiled in his efforts, Satan has worked unceasingly 
from that time to this to accomplish indirectly that which 
he is prohibited from doing directly; and when the dire 
day shall arrive that he shall accomplish his desires, God 
will come down and there will be a confusion infinitely 
greater than that at Babel. And in that day the dif- 
ferent languages will come to an end forever, and one 
tongue for all the righteous will be again. 



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A Babylonian Palace 



CHAPTER III 
"THE HAMMER OF THE WHOLE EARTH" 

AFTER the signal judgment of God in confusing the 
tongues of men at Babel, the colossal Satanic plan 
for filling the world with a single empire was made for- 
ever an utter impossibihty. The thing could never now 
be done as it might have been had the whole earth re- 
mained of one language and of one speech. 

As time passed, however, men were destined to see 
attempts made, under the hand of the 'Trince of this 
world, '^ to approximate the original plan as nearly as 
the changed conditions would permit. Since it was no 
longer true that ^'the people is one,'' could the differ- 
ent peoples be conquered and brought under the hand 
of one all-powerful ruler, who with despotic sway should 
enforce his dominion and religion? And it must ever 
be remembered that in the mind of Satan the enforce- 
ment of religion was the thing of prime importance. 

"Thou Art This Head of Gold" 

The first masterly attempt at this manifested itself 
in the Babylonian Empire. As stated in a previous chap- 
ter the word Babylon, like the word Babel, signifies 
"The Gate of God." Thus it was that the founders sought 

(28) 



'' The Hammer of the Whole Earth" 29 

to impress on all the world the marvelous place which 
they verily beheved their empire was destined to fill. 

Of all the seats of empire — of all the cities that the 
pride and power of man had built on the earth, Baby- 
lon was the greatest. The society was kingly indeed. 
We read of a mighty peerage — of "satraps, captains, 
pashas, chief judges, treasurers, sheriffs, and rulers of 
provinces, with their splendid costumes of scarlet 
and parti-colored sashes.'^ The place was the foun- 
tain of scientific research. Here the first foundations 
of astronomy were laid. There were colleges and ob- 
servatories for research work where the learned spent 
their time, 

But at what a cost had all this pomp, magnificence, 
mxury, material and imperial splendor been attained? 
Every people, every nation, and every language had 
been beaten into submission by Nebuchadnezzar and the 
all-conquering Babylonian hosts. One and all, they had 
been thus beaten down to such an extent that Babylon is 
described by the Bible as the "hammer of the whole 
earth.^' Jer. 50:23. And that terrific hammer of na- 
tions had struck, and struck, and struck again and again 
until it seemed as if every independent people had been 
battered down beneath her sledge-like blows. 

Once this was accomplished, the hammer swung 
round to subdue the consciences of men, and to cause 
every soul to bow to heathen idols. The power of that 
mighty governmental machine was now to be used to 
pound the sacred sanctuary of the soul into the mold 
of the state religion. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed- 
nego were cast into the fiery furnace because they would 
not bow down to the golden image on the plain of Dura. 

And herein lies the danger of the present hour. If 
Rome shall succeed, as a result of the great war, in re- 
establishing her temporal authority over the nations 
of the earth, there will be persecution for conscience' 
sake again just as surely as there has been in the past. 



30 



rhe Vatican and the War 




Taking of Babylon by Cyrus 

For in the famous '^Syllabus of Errors'' issued by Pope 
Pius IX, December 8, 1864, it is held that it is an error 
to beheve or teach that/Hhe church has not the power 
of avaihng herself of force, or any direct or indirect 
temporal power.'' This Syllabus is ^' infallible and 
irreformable." Persecution does not by any means al- 
ways come because men love to inflict pains or torture 
upon their fellows. It comes because those in power be- 
lieve in a certain creed and system and believe that to 
be the only religion of God, and with temporal authority 
in their hands believe they would be recalcitrant to a trust 
if they did not compel men to do their way. But the 
system, whether at Babel or in Babylon, or inculcated and 
administered by the Church of Pome, is fundamentally 
wrong and contrary to the Word of God. 

Under the reign of Belshazzar things went rapidly 
from bad to worse. The Almighty had decreed that 
universal empire should not be. Babylon — 'Hhe ham- 
mer of the whole earth" — was herself to be broken to 
pieces. 



''The Hammer of the Whole Earth'' 31 

" It 13 Time to Thresh Her " 

And now the divine voice was speaking from heaven 
and saying: ^'It is time to thresh her.'' Jer. 51:33. 
Long before, a seer of God had foretold: ''Babylon shall 
sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring 
upon her.'' Jer. 51:64. In one fell night was Bel- 
shazzar slain, ''and Darius the Median took the king- 
dom." 

Everywhere the fierce Median iconoclasts destroyed 
the idols. "Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth." "Mero- 
dach is broken in pieces." "And, behold, there cometh 
a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he 
answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all 
the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the 
ground." Isa. 46: 1; 21: 9; Jer. 50: 2. Her religion per- 
ished with her empire. 

Thus "the oppressor ceased." Thus "the golden 
city ceased." Thus came to an end the first great ex- 
periment in world-wide empire and state-enforced re- 
ligion, a religion likened by the Bible to that which 
Rome would force upon the world today. Thus did 
the hand of God lay in ruins that mighty and ingenious 
engine which the genius and the pride of the power of 
darkness had upreared to the end that the souls and 
bodies of men should be oppressed, and the knowledge 
of God forever annihilated. Thus perished "the hammer 
of the whole earth" when the chimes of the Eternal 
pealed forth: "It is time to thresh her." 





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A Roman Triumph 

CHAPTER IV 

''AS IRON THAT BREAKETH ALL THESE" 

FOR a while Medo-Persia and Greece exercised world 
sway. Then came the ^'Iron Monarchy" of Rome, 
the last of the universal empires. When, in the year 
A. D. 476, that fabric of government, ^'the mightiest 
which upon this planet has been suffered to appear,'^ 
was laid in ruin and dissolved in wreck there came to 
an end the age of the universal monarchies. Of the 
four — Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome — she, 
the last, had been by far the greatest. 

Every acre of Rome's vast empire had been bought 
with blood. The brutal cut and thrust of conquest 
hewed its way through everything from peaceful Car- 
thage to sunny Gaul, in whose behalf the brave Ver- 
cingetorix made his mighty fight. The battle of 
Actium, B. c. 31, was followed by the last conquest of 
Egypt. And says the eloquent DeQuincey: 

"That conquest rounded and integrated the glorious empire. 
(32) 



"As Iron that Breaketh All These'' 33 

It was now circular as a shield — orbicular as the disk of a planet: 
the great Julian arch was now locked into the cohesion of granite 
by its last keystone. From that day forward, for three hundred years, 
there was silence in the world : no muttering was heard : no eye winked 
beneath the wing. Winds of hostihty might still rave at intervals: 
but it was on the outside of the mighty empire : it was at a dream-like 
distance; and like the storm that beat against some monumental 
castle, and at the doors and windows seemed to call, they rather irri- 
tated and vivified the sense of security than at all disturbed its luxu- 
rious lull. She could suffer only by the wrath of Providence, and so 
long as she continued to be Rome, for many a generation, she only 
of all the monarchies has feared no mortal hand." — "Essay on the 
Caesars,' Introduction, par. 9. 

These Romans were anything but merciful conquer- 
ors. The world at large suffered much imder the gross 
misrule of the senate of Rome. And when at last 
the foreign wars of Rome were ended, then Roman 
unsheathed sword against Roman, and the men and 
women of the unhappy empire knew anguish still more 
keen during the three civil wars of the great Julius 
against Pompey, and the authors of the Triumvirate 
against Brutus and Cassius, and of Octavius against 
Mark Antony. Then were those terrible exactions which 
rapacious governors and puhlicani were continually 
making upon the people. Truly, indeed, was the little 
finger of Rome thicker than the loins of the three univer- 
sal kingdoms in whose wake she followed. 

Brute Strength 

Such were the workings of the '4ron rule" of Rome. 
The ^'Eternal City," risen from a bog once situate be- 
tween the Tiber and the Anio, had become the metropolis 
of the earth, and that band of robbers' whose keep had 
been the Mons Palatinus had become le vainaueur des 
vainqueurs de la terre. 

There is a deeply significant thought in the very 
name of the ^^ Eternal City" and empire. Curious it 
is that the early memorials of Rome appear to be Greek 
in their origin. That name, ^^Rome," was Grecian in 
its genesis, and literally interpreted it means '^ Brute 
3 




34 The Vatican and the War 

Strength/' And ''Brute Strength'^ 
correctly describes the foundation 
upon which the entire edifice of 
Rome was reared. Erute strength was 
the material out of which both 
woof and warp of the governmental 
fabric was woven. And brute force is 
the intrinsic, the ultimate thought and 
principle which is and ever has been 
mantled in that word ''Rome" from 
the founding of the TJrhs Aeterna in 
the misty gray days of the dawn of 
history down to these its twilight hours. 
In Rome, both pagan and papal, brute 
force has ever been the court of last ^^^nan ssmi^x 
resort. By this one weapon did that genuinely heathen 
nation seek to bring the world beneath her yoke, and 
by that same sword and stake has the great pseudo- 
Christian church sought to enforce her sway. 

It was brute force that gave to Rome her territory. 
That vast and fertile domain brought forth her riches, 
riches bred luxury, and luxury gave birth to those 
most wretched of all twin sisters — : corruption and vice. 

Now the rule and ruin of Rome has been foretold 
in the Scriptures. Daniel the prophet, himself a states- 
man of renown, speaks of — 

''The fourth kingdom which shall be strong as iron: foras- 
much as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as 
iron that breaketh all 1 hese, shall it break in pieces and bruise. And 
whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part 
of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; and there shall be in it of the 
strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with 
miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and p:irt of 
c^ay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And 
whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle 
themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to 
another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these 
k'ngs shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never 
bo destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but 
it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall 



"As Iron that Breaketh All TJiese" C5 

stand forever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out 
of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, 
the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made 
known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream 
is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure." Dan. 2:40-45 

Rome — The Dragon Empire 

The twelfth chapter of Revelation opens with a view 
of a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under 
her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She 
brings forth a man child who was to rule all nations 
with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up unto 
God and his throne. Unquestionably the man child 
was Christ. The woman can be nothing else than a 
symbol of the Christian Church. Luke 24:51; Mark 
16:9; Rev. 12:3-5. 

And there stood before the woman a great red dragon 
'Ho devour her child as soon as it was born." And now 
the question arises: What instrumentality, what power 
did Satan — ^ the original '^ dragon" of the Bible — use 
in his attempt to devour the child Christ Jesus as soon 
as he was born? 

Ah, he had a world-power, a universal empire, strong 
as iron, all ready for his undying purpose of annihilating 
the truth of God in the earth. That world-empire, 
which for this very purpose he had planned at Babel, 
which he had accomplished in part in Babylon— 'Hhe 
hammer of the whole earth," which he had tried again 
in Medo-Persia and Greece, he had accomplished as 
near to the full as the confusion of tongues would permit 
in the giant Rom^an Empire. 

Satan had indeed timed things well that such an em- 
pire with such an all-powerful emperor ruling over it, 
filled the earth when the Son of God was born in Beth- 
lehem. For the time when Christ was on earth was 
the all-crucial day in the history of redemption. If Sa- 
tan could destroy the power of Christ, or annihilate him, 
he knew that his hellish principles must triumph. He 



36 The Vatican and the War 

marshaled the world-empire under the master hand of 
the imperial Caesars, absolutely controlling all things re- 
hgious as well as all things civil. Never were his forces 
better prepared for the battle. 

Rome, the world-empire of the Dragon, lost no time 
in her endeavor to put to death Christ, the man child 
born of the woman. First came the decree of Herod 
that every male child should be put to death. Herod 
was king of Judea, king by decree of the Roman Senate. 

Satan was not to be halted by this. He never rested 
until Pilate, a Roman governor, sentenced Christ to 
death; till Roman soldiers nailed him to across, and till 
a Roman seal sealed him in a tomb, over which a detach- 
ment of Roman soldiers mounted guard. But as if the 
whole gigantic scheme which Satan had with such 
master cunning perfected were as a mere nothing for him 
to deal with, God sent one angel from heaven — the 
stone was rolled away, the guard of Roman soldiers 
became as dead men, and Christ arose to life. 

In all this God had met Satan, as it were, at his 
own time and under his own circumstances, and tri- 
umphed over him even then and there, for the ^^man 
child'' was caught up unto God and to his throne. 

And as long as the Roman Empire remained, she re- 
mained as Satan's instrumentality, and he used her to 
persecute the church, till at last the measure of the 
great empire's iniquity was filled, and like the ''hammer 
of the whole earth" before her, the decree went forth, 
^'It is time to thresh her." Then that dragon empire, 
the mirror of Satan's mind, in civil and religious govern- 
ment, was crushed to pulp and ground to powder beneath 
the heel of the barbaric tribes of ancient Germania. 

The prophet Daniel has stated of this kingdom that 
it should be divided into ten parts. Seven of these, ac- 
cording to the Scripture, were to remain till the end of 
time, when the God of heaven is to set up a kingdom which 
shall never be destroyed. Therefore any attempt upon 



As Iron that Breaketh All These" 



37 



the part of any of the Great Powers at the present hour 
to set up a world-monarchy is bound to be in vain, for 
the division of the earth into a number of kingdoms 
is to stand until Christ shall come and set up the ever- 
lasting kingdom of God. Out of the present war there 
will never — there never can — come one overshadowing 
world-power. 

Against the infinite fiat that the earth should be 
divided into a number of kingdoms which should never 
be united, have been hurled, each in its time, with ti- 
tanic force and herculean effort, the clans of Clovis, 
the legions of Charlemagne, the flower of knighthood 
under Charles the Fifth, the dragoons of Louis the 
Fourteenth, and the battalions of Napoleon. The world 
reeled under the fierce charges of these world-empire 
grasping warriors, but the word of the Lord stood fast, 
and Europe has remained divided. 









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Napoleon 



CHAPTER V 



"THEY SHALL NOT CLEAVE ONE TO 
ANOTHER" 

THE greatest of all men who have attempted to unite 
the world beneath their sway was Napoleon Bona- 
parte. He came nearer realizing his ambition than any 
of the men who had gone before him since the days 
of the fall of the Roman Empire. 

When the early days of Napoleon are taken into con- 
sideration it must be remembered that France single- 
handed was at war with all Europe. A veritable girdle 
of war enveloped her, at a time when her own interior 
was a seething cauldron of strife. Practically all Eu- 
rope engaged in a coalition to stop the legions of France, 
but never were coalitions more futile than in the cam- 
paigns which followed upon 1792. In spite of all this 
formidable array against her the arms of the French 
were everywhere victorious — in Flanders, in Holland, 
in Spain, on the banks of the Rhine, in Italy, and in Aus- 
triao By 1795 peace was signed between France and 
Prussia, and France had attained to the greatest power 
she had ever known, and had added to herself by volun- 
tary union, by conquest, or by alliance, immense terri- 
tories and thirteen million souls. 

(38) 



''They Shall Not Cleave'' 39 

There followed victory after victory — Rivoli, La 
Favorita, and Corona. Afterwards came Marengo, 
Hohenlinden, Austerlitz, and Jena. And now prac- 
tically all Europe lay at the feet of Napoleon. He had 
humbled Austria, and almost annihilated Prussia, con- 
quered Italy, repaid the help of Spain with perfidy, 
reduced Holland and the Netherlands, and brought 
Russia to terms and to his own way of thinking. Eng- 
land was protected by the sea, and she alone of all the 
great powers was free. But the fiat of the all-powerful 
Napoleon had gone forth that she also must perish. 
Thus did the Island Empire find herself placed between 
the alternative of peace or war with the world. 

In stately language one has summed up the all- 
masterful position of Napoleon at this time: 

" Like the giant of fable who piles mountains one on top of another, 
Napoleon had heaped victory upon victory. His military glory sur- 
passed all glories. The inebriate pubhc believed in the grand al- 
liance which crowned all these triumphs, and was going, they said, 
to enforce peace upon the world, and wring from humbled England 
the liberty of the seas. This colossal and splendid edifice was built 
upon the sand." — Henri Martin. 

The Russian disaster was the beginning of the end; 
after it came the abdication to Elba, and then with daz- 
zling speed ^Hhe hundred days.^' And after that was — 

Waterloo 

Victor Hugo has said that if it had not rained on the 
nights of the seventeenth and eighteenth of June, 1815, 
the future of Europe would have been changed. Cer- 
tain drops of water more or less overthrew Napoleon. 
In order that Waterloo should set an end to Auster- 
litz, Providence needed only a little rain; a cloud crossing 
the sky out of season sufficed for the downfall of a world. 
The battle of Waterloo — and this gave Bleucher time 
to arrive — could not commence till half past eleven. 
Why? Because the earth v/as soaked. It was necessary 
to wait till it grew a little firmer before the artillery 



''They Shall Not Cleave'' 41 

could maneuver. Napoleon was an officer of artillery 
and he showed the effects of it. There was something 
of the shooting-gallery in his genius. To hammer to 
pieces the squares, to pulverize regiments, to break 
lines, to grind up and scatter masses — his way of do- 
ing this was to pound, pound, pound unceasingly. 
He confided this business to the cannon-ball; a ghastly 
method which, joined to his genius, for fifteen years 
kept this sunburnt pugilist of war invincible. The 
eighteenth of June, 1815, he counted more than ever 
on the artillery, since numbers were in his favor. Well- 
ington had only one hundred sixty-nine; Napoleon two 
hundred forty cannon. 

If the ground had been dry and the artillery able 
to roll, the action would have commenced at six in the 
morning, and the battle would have been gained and 
ended at two o'clock, three hours before the Prussian 
catastrophe. How much to blame was Napoleon for 
the loss of this battle? Is the shipwreck to be blamed 
on the pilot? Was the evident physical decline of Na- 
poleon complicated at this time by certain inward 
weaknesses? These twenty years of war, had they used 
up the sword as well as the sheath, the soul as well as 
the body? Had Napoleon lost the instinct of victory? 
Was he seized with a supreme folly at the age of forty- 
six? Was this titanic charioteer of destiny no more than 
a great breakneck? We do not at all believe this. His 
plan of battle was by general confession a masterpiece: 
To go straight to the center of the allies; to make an open- 
ing in the enemy; to cut him in two and push the Brit- 
ish half on Hal, and the Prussian half on Tongres; to 
shatter Wellington and Bleucher; to carry Mont St. 
Jean; to hurl the German into the Rhine, and the Eng- 
lishmen into the sea — all this was Napoleon's plan in 
this engagement. 

"Was it possible that Napoleon should gain this battle? We an- 
swery No. Why? Because of Wellington? Because of Bleucher? 



42 The Vatican and the War 

No. Because of God. Bonaparte victor at Waterloo — that was no 
longer according to the law of the nineteenth century. Another 
series of events was preparing, wherein Napoleon had no further 
place. The too great heaviness of this man in human destiny troubled 
the balance. The moment was come for the incorruptible supreme 
equity to take counsel. Doubtless the principle and the elements 
whereon depend the regular gravity of the moral as of the material 
order, complained. . . . 

"Napoleon had been denounced by the Infinite and his downfall 
was resolved. He bothered God. Waterloo is not a battle; it is the 
universe char.ging front. 

''The shadow of an enormous justice falls across Waterloo. It 
is the day of destiny. The power above man had granted this day. 
Therefore the fearful bending of these heads; therefore all these great 
souls surrendering their swords. Those who had conquered Europe 
are fallen confounded, having nothing more to say or do, feeling 
in the shadow of a terrible presence. Hoc erat fatis. On this day the 
perspective of mankind was changed. Waterloo is the hinge of the 
nineteenth century. The going of the great man was necessary to 
the coming of the great cycle. The One who is not mocked has 
taken charge. The panic of the heroes is explained: In the battle of 
Waterloo there is more than a cloud, there is a meteor — God has 
passed by." — Victor Hugo, "Les Miserables.^' 

Victor Hugo was right. The God of heaven had given 
a command concerning the battle of Waterloo. Napo- 
leon had pitted himself and the legions of France, not 
against the coalitions of Europe, but against the fiat of 
the Lord God of battles. He had come into conflict with 
the Word of prophecy. That Word had said that ''the 
kingdom [Rome] '' should be divided, and that the 
kingdoms which should take its place should stand 
until the God of heaven should set up a kingdom which 
should never be destroyed. That Word had said that 
those kingdoms should not cleave one to another. Na- 
poleon had sought to weld them into one. He could 
not make them cleave together. They themselves re- 
belled against being welded into one, against becoming 
united beneath one standard as in the days of Rome. 



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Christian martyrs at Rome 



CHAPTER VI 



"AND ] SAW A BEAST OF PREY COME UP." 

WHEN the iron monarchy of Rome went to pieces, 
it was the destruction of Satan's most colossal 
success of world-empire building. For Rome was the 
heau ideal embodiment of the devil's scheme of a uni- 
versal empire. In it all he had but one fell purpose — 
the enslaving of the souls and bodies of all mankind. 
Through it to persecute to the death Jesus Christ the 
Lord and his followers through all the ages, and to blot 
from the earth the knowledge of God, was his supreme 
ambition, his soul-inspiring passion. And world-empire 
today under the guiding hand of the Roman Church 
will be used for purposes of persecution for conscience' 
sake as it has always been used. 

But by A. D. 476 the empire of Rome had perished. 
Henceforth there was naught of the pagan Roman Em- 
pire but a memory and a name. In its place were ten 
kingdoms, all young and aggressive. World-empire 
of the old sort was obviously out of the question for the 
present at any rate. 



44 The Vatican and the War 

Were Satan human he must needs have been abashed, 
confused, and utterly disconcerted. As it was, it is writ- 
ten in the Scriptures — ''He took his stand on the sea- 
shore.''* In utter despair, because his idol empire was 
broke'n in pieces, he took his stand upon the seashore 
^ figuratively saying 'within himself, ''What now can 
I use, what now can I use?" He took his stand upon the 
seashore and waited to see what new form of world- 
wide, centralized power could be made to arise. 

Nor did he have to tarry long, for soon there was 
seen "a beast of prey"t coming up from the sea. Here 
is the record: 

"And I saw a beast of prey come up from the sea, having ten 
horns, and seven heads; and upon his horns ten diadems, and upon 
his heads names of blasphemy. And the beast of prey which I saw, 
was like a leopard; and his feet like those of a wolf , and his mouth like 
those of lions; and the dragon gave him his own power and his throne 
and great authority. And one of his heads was wounded as it were 
to death; and his deadly wound was healed. And all the earth won- 
dered after the beast of prey. And they worshiped the dragon, because 
he had given authority to the beast of prey; and they said, Who can 
make war upon him? And there was given to him a mouth speak- 
ing great things, and blasphemies: and authority was given him to 
operate forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blas- 
phemy toward God, to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle, and 
them who dwell in heaven. And authority was given him over 
every tribe and people and tongue and nation: and it was given him 
to wage war with the saints, and to overcome them." Rev. 13: 1-7. 
Syriac New Testament. 

Here then was a new power — a power that seeks to 
destroy everything that antagonizes it, for it is a "beast 
of prey." It does its will through many agencies, gov- 
ernments, and nations, for it had "ten horns and seven 
heads." It entered the realms of the spiritual, it com- 
manded the soul, it invaded the sanctuary of the con- 
science, which alone belongs to God. Thus did it usurp 
the power of the Almighty. It did this through the pow- 
ers of earth which it compelled to do its bidding, for 

*Vide Twentieth Centurv. ¥ew Testament, Rev. 12:17; Rotherham's New Testament, id., 
Syriac New Testament, id. 

^ Syriac New Te^t^ment, Rev. 12:17. 



''A Beast of Prey'' 45 

''upon his horns were ten diadems, and upon his heads 
names of blasphemy J' It was so swift to strike that it 
was "hke a leopard^'; so cunning and so stealthly in 
its movements that its feet were hke those of a wolf, 
or of a bear. Its mouth was ^'like the mouth of Hons,^' 
strong and greedy to tear and devour. 

This is the description of the beast of whom it is 
further written that the ''dragon gave to him his own 
power, and his throne, and great authority.'^ More- 
over, he was a world power, for ''authority was given 
him over every tribe and people and tongue and na- 
tion.'^ And yet again he was an anti-Christian power, 
for "it was given him to wage war with the saints, and 
to overcome them," and "to operate forty and two 
months.'' 

Here then was a new universal power. This was a 
world-church, instead of a world-empire. It was a church 
holding universal sway, and commanding submission 
to itself, and making war against the saints of God. 

Which then is this church? The one which rose at 
about that time, and operated forty and two prophetic 
months, or one thousand two hundred sixty years (538- 
1798) was the papacy. She calls herself the "Holy Catho- 
lic Church.'^ The word "Catholic'' signifies universal; 
and hence the Roman Catholic Church is simply the 
Roman Universal Church. And in this it was simply 
the application in a different form of the principle which 
Satan desired to carry into effect, first at Babel on the 
plain of Shinar, and later in the Babylonish, Medo- 
Persian, and Roman empires. It was so that whenever 
and in whatsoever clime a man should arise, and in- 
spired by the living God should preach the gospel of 
Christ in deed and in truth, that this all-powerful uni- 
versal church should crush him at a blow, and by her 
power over kings and kingdoms, no land on earth 
should afford him sanctuary, asylum, or refuge. 

Further light is thrown upon the character of this 



46 The Vatican and the V/ar 

power by Paul in the second letter to the Thessalonians 
and the second chapter. He was writhig of the day 
of the coming of the Lord and said : 

"That day shall not come, except there come a falling away 
first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who op- 
poseth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that 
is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing 
himself that he is God." 2 Thess. 2: 3, 4. 

From the above specifications of the Scriptiires it is 
clear that this power is an ecclesiastical one — one which 
deals with ^Hhe Most Pligh/' and reigns in opposition to 
^Hhe Prince of princes." But they show that it is more 
than an ecclesiastical power — they reveal it as a world- 
power, a theocratical world-kingdom, requiring worship 
to itself. 

And again, all this is emphasized by a further de- 
scription of the same power: 

"I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names 
of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. . . . And upon 
her forehead was a name written. Mystery, Babylon the Great, the 
Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth. And I saw the 
woman drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of 
the martyrs of Jesus." Rev. 17:3-5. 

And there can be no question but that in the past 
Pome has been drunk with the blood of the saints and 
with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. At the present 
time Roman Catholicism is regarded by non-Catholics 
with much more favor than in years gone by. Out- 
wardly Rome is taking a more conciliatory course, but at 
heart she still holds that she did right when she per- 
secuted heretics. If only the restraint now imposed 
by the secular arm were removed and Rome reinstated 
in her former power, she would persecute and tyrannize 
as of yore. And this is what will be done if she has her 
way to the full in the settling up of the great war. 

As pre^dously stated, when the Roman Empire 
went to pieces, the nations of Germanic origin settled 



'A Beast of Prey" 



47 



upon the territory over which she had ruled. Three 
of these, the HeruH, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths, 
possessed the Arian faith. At the instigation of the 
papacy these were utterly destroyed; the last of them, 
the Ostrogoths, being overthrown in a. d. 538. 

At Last a World Power 

Immediately after this the bishop of E.ome asserted 
his sole authority over the estates of the church. The 




View of Rome from the dome of St. Peter's 

territory surrounding Rome was created into the Roman 
Duchy, and the bishops of Rome claimed sole juris- 
diction over it. 

The pope was now not only pope, but also king. 
He had a definite territory over which he ruled, to a 
certain extent at least, in things temporal as well as 
spiritual. Later he received a letter from the Emperor 
Justinian confirming him in his position. By this letter 
and the overthrow of the Ostrogoths, the last of the 
Arian kingdoms, the temporal authority of the papacy 
was established. 

Then began that ^' fatal policy of the Roman See," 



48 The Vatican and the War 

herself now a ''world-power/' possessing territory over 
which she exercised temporal dominion, and by virtue 
of which she could contend with other kingdoms, and 
upon the same level. ''Henceforth kings and emper- 
ors were her tools, and often her playthings; and king- 
doms and empires her conquests, and often only her 
traffic/' 

And Now the Pope 

In the prophecy of the seven churches in the book 
of Revelation are seven letters addressed by the Lord 
to his own church in the seven phases of the complete 
cycle of her experience from the first advent of our Lord 
to his coming again in the clouds of glory. 

The letter to the church in the third phase of her 
experience gives the keystone of the whole papal 
system as a world-power. There is here mentioned 
with commendation by the Head of the church, Christ 
Jesus the Lord, the fact that his church had held fast 
his name, and had not denied his faith, "even in those 
days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr." 

Now the word "Antipas" is not the name of a per- 
son. It designates rather a condition of the times. 
It is made up of two words: anti, and pappas. "Anti" 
means against, and "pappas" means papa. This word 
papa is simply the word pa repeated, and is the origin 
of the word "pope.'' 

And so it comes about that "Antipas" — "against 
'pas' or 'pappas'" — denominates those who opposed 
the arrogance and usurpation of the bishop of Rome. 
And it is evident from the Scripture, and substantiated 
by history, that many were put to death for their op- 
position to this monarchical power and world-wide 
church. 

The records further show that while the other prin- 
cipal bishops of the church bore the title of "patriarch," 
the bishop of Rome avoided it always, as placing him 



"A Beast of Prey'' 



49 



on the same plane with the other '' patriarchs/' He al- 
ways preferred the title of ''papa" or ''pope."* And 
he preferred this title because "patriarch" means and 
indicates an oligarchical church government — that is, 
a government by a few; whereas "pope" indicates a 
monarchical church government — that is, government 
by one and one alone. 

And thus over a bloody path bestrewn with the 
ruin and wreck of kings and kingdoms, reeking in the 
blood of martyrs, came the papacy to be established as a 
world-power. Well indeed has a great philosopher said, 
"No one can study the development of the Itahan 
ecclesiastical power without discovering how completely 
it depended upon human agencies, too often on hu- 
man passion and intrigues; how completely wanting it 
was of any mark of the divine construction and care — 
the offspring of man, not of God, and therefore bearing 
upon it the lineaments of human passions, human vir- 
tues, and human sins." 



*Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. Ill, sec. 55, par. 7, note. 



^■'^■^■.*/^'"^x 
















**And I saw a beast of prey come up' 




Pope Gregory Yll (Hildebrand) 



CHAPTER VII 

"THE WOMAN WHICH REIGNETH OVER 
THE KINGS OF THE EARTH" 

POPE GREGORY VII, better known as Hildebrand, 
attained to the pontificate in the year 1073 a. d. 
Without controversy he was the greatest papal empire 
builder the See of Rome has ever had — a very Napoleon 
among the popes — ^Hhe Caesar of the papacy." He did 
more than any other one man to make the papacy 
world-wide in her jurisdiction, and all-powerful po- 
litically and internationally. 

The manner in which this Gregory dealt with kings 
and princes ought to make it plain to princes and poten- 
tates today how Rome will deal with them and their 
kingdoms, if by means of the wars and commotions 
which fill the earth at the present time she can reinstate 
herself as mistress over the civil power. When she was 
in power, sovereigns and people rued her rule; they 
will rue it again as surely as they permit her to regain 
the ascendency over them which she has lost. 

Leo III was pope when the great Charlemagne was 
crowned emperor. For a long time after this the suc- 
cessors of Charlemagne received the crown from the 
hands of the Supreme Pontiff. But for a considerable 
period, up to the time of Gregory VII, the papacy it- 

(50) 



"The Woman Which Reigneth'' 51 

self had become so dissipated that instead of the popes 
choosing the emperors, it had fallen out that the em- 
perors had chosen the popes. It was the supreme purpose 
and ambition of Hildebrand to reverse this practise 
and make the papacy again supreme. 

The War of Investitures 

In the eleventh century a full half of the land and 
wealth of the German Empire and no small part of its 
military strength, was in the hands of churchmen. Their 
influence predominated in the Diet; the archchancellor- 
ship of the empire, highest of all offices, was held by, 
and eventually came to belong of right to, the arch- 
bishop of Mentz as primate of Germany. 

From this it is clear that these prelates were temporal 
lords and nobles as well as churchmen. Therefore 
such were not allowed to possess themselves of the tem- 
poralities of their sees without the approval of the em- 
peror. The ceremony by which this was done was 
known as ^ investiture.^' 

Against this practise Gregory's second council made 

a decree in 1075, to wit: 

"If any one shall henceforth accept of a bishopric or of an 
abbey from a layman, let him not be looked upon as a bishop or ab- 
bot, nor any respect be paid to him as such. We moreover exclude 
him from the grace of Saint Peter, and forbid him to enter the church 
till he has resigned the dignity that he has got by ambition, and by 
disobedience, which is idolatry. And this decree extends to inferior 
dignities. In like manner, if any emperor, duke, marquis, count, 
or any other secular person whatever, shall take upon him to give 
the investiture of a bishopric, or any other ecclesiastical dignity, 
he shall be Hable to the same sentence." — Bower, ^' Lives of the 
Popes," Gregory VII, par. 13. 

Now this proclamation would rob the empire of half 
its territory. In short, it amounted to ''a declaration 
of war against all Christian princes."* 

Henry IV of Germany paid no attention to this de- 
cree. Hence he was summoned to appear in person at 
Rome on the Monday of the second week in Lent, 

*Bower, Lives of the Popes, "Gregory VII," par. 13. 



52 The Vatican and the War 

1076, there to answer for his disobedience to the pope. 
If the king did not obey he was to be excommunicated, 
and placed under an anathema. 

Henry struck back by assembhng a council at Worms, 
which pronounced an acrid sentence of deposition against 
Gregory. 

The pope next convened a council of bishops and ab- 
bots in the Lateran which pronounced the following 
sentence against Henry: 

"It behooves us to draw the sword of vengeance; and now we 
must smite the foe of God, and of his church. . . . Long enough 
have we borne with him: often enough have we admonished him: let 
his seared conscience be made at length to feel! I forbid King Henry, 
the son of the Emperor Henry, who with an unheard-of pride has in- 
sulted your church, to meddle henceforth with the government of 
the Teutonic kingdom of Italy. I absolve all Christians from the 
oath of allegiance, which they have taken or shall take to him, and 
forbid any one to serve him as king. ... I now anathematize 
him in your (addressing Peter) name, that all nations may know 
that thou art Peter, that upon this rock the son of the living God 
has builded his church, and that the gates of hell shall not prevail 
against it."— M/man," History of Latin Christianity,'' Vol. Ill, book 
7, chap 11, -par. 29, et seq. Bower and DeCormenin, under Gregory VII. 

But troubles instigated by the mighty pope soon 
began to thicken for Henry in his own kingdom. His 
throne and crown became insecure. At last he decided 
to make his submission to Hildebrand. It was one of 
the coldest winters ever known. Henry, with his wife 
and baby son, and a few followers, started to cross the 
Alps into Italy, through a country covered with snow 
and filled with his enemies. 

At the castle of the Countess Matilda at Canossa, 
the youthful emperor met the veteran pope. Henry 
was informed that he must leave outside all his guards 
and enter the castle alone. 

Henry passed through the outer gate, which was 
shut behind him. Now he was required not only to lay 
aside all royal apparel, but to unclothe himself entirely, 
and assume the single sackcloth garment of a penitent; 
''a broom and scissors were placed in his hands, as a 



The Woman Which Reigneth'^ 



53 



sign that he consented to be whipped and shaven"; 
and he was then permitted to pass within the second 
wall. There ^'on a dreary winter morning, January 
25, 1077, with the ground deep in snow, the king, the 
heir of a long Hne of emperors,'^ stood bareheaded and 
barefooted, awaiting the will of Hildebrand. Thus 
fasting, he passed the first day and night. The second 




King Henry lY at Canossa 

day and night he endured in like manner, the while 
pleading for the pope to hear and deliver him. The third 
day dawned with the pope as obdurate as ever. 

On the fourth day Henry was admitted to his desired 
interview with the pope. No redeeming touch of gentle- 
ness or compassion marked the terms exacted from him 
by the mighty Hildebrand. Some of them were as follows : 

"That he should appear at the time and the place which the 
pope should appoint, to answer, in a general Diet of the German 
lords, the charge brought against him, and should own the pope for 
his judge. 

"That till judgment was given and his cause was finally determined 
he should lay aside all badges of royalty, and should levy no money 
upon the people but what was necessary for the support of his family. 

"That all who had taken an oath of allegiance to him should be 
absolved from that oath before God as well as before men. 



54 The Vatican and the War 

"That if he should clear himself of the crimes laid to his charge 
and remain king, he should be ever obedient and submissive to the 
pope, and confer with him, to the utmost of his power, in reforming 
the abuses that custom had introduced against the laws of the church 
into his kingdom." 

But Gregory had gone too far. His ^^ vaunting 
ambition had o'erleapt itself.'^ The people of Germany 
could not stand the manner in which he had humiliated 
and insulted their emperor. They began to rally around 
Henry, and to urge him to pay no attention to the 
hard conditions imposed on him under duress. Soon 
Henry was victorious in Germany and Italy. He elected 
a pope of his own, and marched to Rome, and for three 
years beseiged it. Varying fortunes, first to one party 
and then to the other, followed. Once more Rome was 
sacked, and fire and the sword, murder and rapine 
were abroad in the streets. 

In the end the forces backing Hildebrand were routed, 
and he was obliged to go into exile at Salerno. There 
he died May 25, 1085. 

Thus passed away Gregory VII, 'Vicegerent of God,^' 
prince and pope, judge and jury — he who above all 
others made the most extravagant claims in behalf of 
the universal power of the papacy, and who had sur- 
rendered Germany and Italy to all the horrors of civil, 
mihtary, and internecine strife and bloodshed in his 
attempt to satisfy his inordinate lust for the universal 
power of his universal church. 

And thus under his iron rule was further fulfilled the 
word of the Scripture — '^ power was given her over 
kingdoms, and tongues and nations," and she reigned 
'^over the kings of the earth." 

And all the above clearly shows the place which, in 
the mind of the papacy, the civil power should occupy 
with reference to herself. In her mind Rome is above 
the civil power, and the civil power should bow the 
knee to her in everything. 




CHAPTER VIII 
"WHO IS LIKE UNTO THE BEAST?" 

England under Interdict 

IN NO nation has the papacy made a more determined 
fight to obtain control of the civil power than in 
Britain. Not without a struggle did Protestant Eng- 
land win and maintain her freedom from the Vatican. 
^^The woman . . . which ruleth over the kings of 
the earth" was determined to hold the Island Empire 
under her sway. 

The growth of the papal power in England was 
gradual, and it was not until after the Norman conquest 
that the pope began to send his legates thither. 

Pope Gregory VII, the noted Hildebrand, undertook 
to make William the Conqueror acknowledge fealty 
to him, and also to pay some arrearages of Peter's 
pence. In a remarkable letter William refused the 
former while expressing his willingness to do the latter. 

In the Reign of King John 

But the grand attack of the papacy upon England 
was made in the reign of King John of infamous memory. 
He was the vilest, the most cowardly, and the most 
arbitrary monarch who ever wielded the British scepter. 

In Rome, the chair of the Fisherman was filled 
by Pope Innocent III. He was as austere as John was 
dissipated, as daring as John was cowardly, and equally 
as absolute in his make-up. The policy which marked 

(55) 



56 The Vatican and the War 

his pontificate was a continuation of that of Gregory 
VII. It had for its purpose the subordination of princes 
and all their rights and powers to the Papal See, and the 
appointing by the papacy of those who were to fill the 
episcopal sees of Christendom. Its object was that 
through the bishops and priests thus appointed, the 
Vatican might be able to govern all the kingdoms of 
the world. 

In 1205 the primate of England died. One faction 
elected one man to fill his place; another faction elected 
another man. The latter party was favored by the 
king, and its choice was actually installed in office. 
But that did not settle the matter, and both parties 
appealed to Innocent. He settled the question by re- 
jecting both candidates and appointing a man named 
Langton. 

Both John and the people of England were deeply 
humiliated. To mollify the former. Innocent sent him 
a present of four gold rings set with precious stones. 
But John was not so easily settled with. His rage knew 
no bounds. Langton was forbidden to enter England 
beyond Dover, where he landed. Innocent calmly re- 
torted that if John did not recede from his position 
and acknowledge Langton he would place England under 
interdict. 

It is difficult for men of this generation to realize 
the terrors of this sentence upon the superstitious minds 
of the people of that age. 

The churches were kept perpetually closed: the 
sacrament was not administered; the dead were buried 
like dogs in unconsecrated places — in a ditch or a dung 
heap, without prayer or funeral rite or tolling bell. The 
island was supposed to be entirely surrendered to the 
devil; all intercourse between God and man was supposed 
to be broken off, and a superstitious age believed that 
it was. 

King John stood this awful situation for two whole 



"Who Is Like unto the Beast f 



57 



years, it may be supposed the longest years that Eng- 
land ever endured. But Innocent was not to be turned 
from his purpose. He went a step further and excommu- 
nicated John, deposing him from his throne, and absolv- 
ing all his subjects from their allegiance. The audacity 
of this act almost staggers the imagination. But it did 
not stagger Innocent. He had pronounced the sentence; 
the next thing was to enforce it. To this end he offered 
Philip Augustus of France the kingdom of England, 




King John surrendering the kingdom to the pope's legate 

if he would invade the island with an armed force. So 
Philip collected a mighty armament and prepared to 
cross the Channel. This was a still greater audacity, 
but none too great for Innocent. 

But it was too much for John. His obstinacy forsook 
him. He begged an audience with Pandulph, the pope^s 
legate, and he — ", . . resigned England to God, 
to St. Peter and St. Paul, and to Pope Innocent." 

Next the papal legate journeyed to France, where 
he met Philip Augustus, whom he informed that King 
John ^'having made his kingdom a part of St. Peter's 



58 The Vatican and the War 

patrimony, had rendered it impossible for any Chris- 
tian prince, without the most manifest and flagrant im- 
piety, to attack him."* 

Philip Augustus flew into a rage, as well he might. 
He remonstrated that the preparation for the expedition 
had cost him a vast sum of money, and that all he had 
done had been at the behest of the pope. 

But it was with Innocent III and England as it had 
been with Gregory VII and Henry IV of Germany. 
The pope had gone too far. The barons of England 
would not stand to be thus humiliated by the proud 
pontiff. In the year 1215 the barons made a series of 
demands upon John, involving the freedom of the peo- 
ple of his realm. ^^Why do they not ask me for my king- 
dom," John passionately exclaimed. ^^I will never grant 
such liberties as will make me a slave!" But England 
was rising, and the tyrant trembled. The barons threw 
off their allegiance, and began to attack the royal cas- 
tles. 

At the Meadow of Runnymede 

In May, 1215, the barons entered London, and the 
city joyfully surrendered to them, other cities following 
the example of the capital. Unable longer to resist the 
will of the barons and the people, and deserted by his 
friends, John agreed to a conference, which was called 
on an island near the meadow of Runnymede, on the 
bank of the Thames, between Windsor and Staines. 
The barons presented their grievances in forty-nine 
articles, which the king accepted and to which he set 
his seal. Then on the same day, the ever memorable 
fifteenth of June, 1215, he issued the Great Charter of 
Liberties. 

'^ Magna Charta is one of the greatest epoch-making events in 
our constitutional annals. It is still the keystone of English liberty. 
All that has since been obtained is little more than a confirmation 



*Hume, History of England, "Reign of King John." chap. ii. 



- ''Who Is Like unto the Beast f . 50 

or commentary; and if every subsequent law were to be swept away, 
there would still remain the bold features that distinguish a free from 
a despotic monarchy" — Hallam, "State of Europe in the Middle Ages," 
chap. 8. 

" Broad Based Upon the People's Will " 

The chief glory of the charter granted at Runnymede 
was its equal distribution of civil rights to all classes of 
freemen. And as posterity is greatly indebted to the 
men who strove with the king and procured this con- 
cession of popular rights, it should not be forgotten that 
England owes the Charter to the efforts of two great 
men, one distinguished in ecclesiastical and the other 
in state affairs — Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canter- 
bury, and William, earl of Pembroke. The time was 
exceedingly critical, and had it not been for the courageous 
stand they made, the foundations of British civil liberty 
might not have been laid as they were laid, "broad 
based upon the people^ s willJ^ 

Innocent Annuls the Magna Charta 

But John had no real heart in what he had done. 
A council of twenty-five barons had been appointed from 
the general body, who were to enforce its observance 
on the king. In a furious outburst of passion he ex- 
claimed: ^^They have given me five and twenty over- 
kings." Then he appealed to the pope, and Innocent 
annulled the Magna Charta by a bull, and excommuni- 
cated the barons in most violent language. 

The Great Charter is often styled the bulwark of 
the liberties of the English people, and from the above 
it will be clear that the papacy was opposed to their 
possession of these liberties and the bulwark guaranteeing 
the same to them. The papacy held then as previously 
and as today that the rights of government descended 
from her to kings, and that they never were and are not 
''based upon the people^ s willJ'' This is her idea of civil 
government through all her history. Nor is this to state 
that such is the idea of all the members of her communion, 



60 



The Vatican and the War 



or even of all the officials of the Roman Church. For 
Archbishop Langton had been appointed by the pope, 
yet he held with the barons in the great struggle. 

And now in our days we see England, for the first 
time in four hundred years, going cap in hand to Rome 
to ask the pope to plead her cause. If her statesmen 
would only ponder over the history of the past and of 
the annulling of Magna Charta by the pope they would 
better understand whither such a path will lead. Does 
that people desire to go into the thraldom that they were 
in during the reign of John? This is what Rome has in 
mind. She is far-reaching in her plans and methods of 
operation. ^'She is employing every device to extend 
her influence and increase her power in preparation 
for a fierce and determined conffict to regain control of 
the world, to reestablish persecution, and to undo all 
that Protestantism has done." 




The Vatican library 




Jezebel handing Naboth's death warrant to the messenger 

CHAPTER IX 

''THAT WOMAN JEZEBEL" 

IN THE first book of Kings in the Old Testament is 
the record of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel of Is- 
rael. Concerning them it is written: 

"And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord 
above all that were before him. And it came to pass, as if it had been a 
light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, 
that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zi- 
donians, and went and served Baal, and worshiped him. . . . 
And Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than 
all the kings of Israel that were before him. . . . There was none 
like unto Ahab, which did seU himself to work wickedness in the sight 
of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred upJ^ 1 Kings 16: 30, et seq. 

There is no name of woman more execrated in all 
the Bible than that of Jezebel. Of her husband, Ahab, 
it is written that he did evil in the sight of the Lord 
above all that were before him, and that as if this were 
^^a light thing'' he took Jezebel to wife. His connection 
with this wicked woman is recorded against him as a 
crowning sin. 

Now the Scriptures bear ample testimony that to 
stir up Ahab — to incite him to lengths of wickedness 
which he could never have dreamed of — was one of Jeze- 
bel's chief characteristics. When Ahab desired a vine- 
yard of Naboth the Jezreelite, the latter refused to sell 
to him. Then it is written: 

(61) 



62 The Vatican and the War 

"Ahab came into his house heavy and displeased because of 
the word which Naboth the JezreeUte had spoken to him. . . . 
And he laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and 
would eat no bread." 1 Kings 21:4. 

In other words, the extent of his wickedness in this 
particular case was to act Hke a spoiled boy instead of 
hke the king of a great nation. He had a bad fit of the 
sulks because he could not have his own way; so he lay 
on his bed and turned his face to the wall, and refused 
to eat his supper. If he had been let alone this would 
probably have been the end of the matter, and the 
extent of his wickedness. 

But his wife, Jezebel, was not content to let mat- 
ters rest. She stirred him up. She went away beyond 
the sin of sulking. She laid a plot and set up a conspiracy. 
She wrote letters and signed her husband's name to them, 
sealed them with his seal, hired men of Belial to give 
perjured testimony, and caused the innocent Naboth 
to be stoned to death on a trumped-up charge of blas- 
phemy against God and the king. Thus did Jezebel 
fulfil her vow to Ahab, ^'I will give thee the vineyard of 
Naboth.'' 

Further, this same Jezebel set about to establish 
her idolatrous worship in the nation which God had 
chosen for himself. To aid her in this, she employed and 
fed at her own table eight hundred fifty celibate priests. 
With this army she searched out and put to death every 
worshiper of God whom she could find. She persevered 
in this effort until there could be found but seven thou- 
sand who had not bowed the knee to Baal, and these 
were hunted Hke wolves and beasts of prey till they took 
refuge in the caves of the earth and in the most deso- 
late and solitary places. 

Such was the woman Jezebel of Old Testament 
times. Under her rule rose the first long series of like 
events in ecclesiastical history — the first great persecu- 
tion — the first persecution on a large scale which the 
church had witnessed in any shape. 



''That Woman JezeheV 63 

And Now the Counterpart of Jezebel 

To the fourth one of the ^' seven churches" spoken 

of in the Apocalypse, John the Revelator wrote: 

"I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that 
woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to 
seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacri- 
ficed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, 
and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them 
that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they re- 
pent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and all 
the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and 
hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. ^' 
Rev. 2:20-23. 

The book of Revelation is the last book in the Bible 
and is the one which foretells and records the great 
apostasy which began while the apostles were yet alive 
and is to continue to the end of time. In it, as referred to 
above, this Jezebel is cited by the Lord as the illustration 
of that very corrupt, deceiving, destroying apostasy 
itself. And here a warning is given against the seduction 
of "that woman Jezebel,'^ v/hich has direct reference to 
the workings of the papacy. 

It is written of that woman Jezebel that she "calleth 
herself a prophetess." Now a prophet or prophetess 
is a spokesman, a mouthpiece for God — one especially 
commissioned to give direct messages from God to man.* 
And who has made this claim so loudly as the Church 
of Rome? She it is who styles herself the one and only 
interpreter of the Scriptures — "the infallible channel 
of the divine will to man." 

The meaning of the name "Jezebel" is "not cohab- 
ited." Certainly in the ancient story the name little 
fitted the character of the one who bore it. And the pa- 
pacy claims to be the "spouse" of Christ Jesus the Lord. 
Yet all her history shows that she has ever sought re- 
lationships with the kings of the earth, and endeavored 
to use the strength of the civil power to further her own 
ends. 

* Vide Ex. 4: 15-16; Deut. i8: i8. 



64 



The Vatican and the War 



A noted characteristic of the original Jezebel was the 
manner in which she stirred up the ruling king, and caused 
him to do more evil than he otherwise would have done. 
This same trait appears throughout the entire course 
of the papacy when once she had become established 
as a world-power. The Scripture specifically fastens it 
upon her in the description — ^Hhe woman . . . 
which reigneth over the kings of the earth.'' Rev. 
17:18, 

During all this time true Christians were in much the 




French Hugenots fleeing from persecution 

same place and position as the worshipers of the true 
God in the days of the original Jezebel. They were hid- 
ing in the dens and caves, among the rocks and munitions 
of the hills, in the deserts and obscure places of the earth. 
They were cast out, they were trodden under foot, and 
they were persecuted. 

The Jezebel of the Apocalypse and the papacy of 
the Middle Ages are without controversy one and the 
same power. To exalt herself into a place where she can 
first woo and wed and later lord it over the civil power, 
thus reigning over the kings of the earth, has ever been 
the aim of the Vatican. It was her aim in the Dark 



''That Woman Jezehel" 



65 



Ages, and it is her plan and purpose today. And the 
present struggle in Europe is being made by her to serve 
these unhappy designs in a manner which but few even 
suspect. 

And if the Church of Rome shall, as a result of the 
great war, be able to exalt herself once more into a place 
where she can control the temporal power, the fires of 
persecution will again be lighted and all who do not ac- 
cept of her teachings will feel the weight of her heavy 
hand. By wrong conceptions of the divine attributes, 
heathen nations believed that human sacrifices were 
necessary in order to please God. The Church of Rome 
unites the forms of paganism with those of Christianity, 
and has often resorted to practises no less cruel and re- 
volting. ^^Dignitaries of the church studied, under 
Satan their master, to invent means to cause the great- 
est possible torture and not end the life of the victim. '^ 
The cruelties with which the observance of Sunday 
— the mark of papal authority — has been enforced, 
are almost unthinkable. 



AFew o/the 
i / !n.»trumeat6 of" 
Y Torture UsecTin 





Martyrdom of John Huss 



CHAPTER X 

*'l GAVE HER SPACE TO REPENT, BUT SHE 
REPENTED NOT" 

IT HAS been previously shown that the term 'Hhat 
woman Jezebel," as used in the Holy Scripture, ap- 
pUes to the Roman CathoUc power. But God had a 
love for Jezebel, and in spite of all her heart wandermgs, 
he would have saved her had it been possible for divme 
mercy to do so. God would, if he could, have healed 
even Rome; but she would have none of his healmg. 
In the same Scripture in which he calls her ^Hhat woman 
Jezebel" it is written: 

''And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented 
not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adul- 
tery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. 
Rev. 2:21,22. 

Wonderfully was this word of God fulfilled. For 
more than a hundred years before the Reformation of 
the sixteenth century began, God called the Church of 

(66) 



''She Repented Not'* 67 

Rome, and especially the leaders in it, to repentance. 
For one hundred years and better he gave her space to 
repent. 

This calling of the Church of Rome to better ways 
began under Wyclif, and continued under Mathias of 
Janow, Conrad of Waldhausen, Militz of Prague, Huss, 
Jerome, and a host of others. The work of these men, 
in many ways, was primarily for the church. It was an 
effort to have the church adopt different and better prin- 
ciples and policies. It was an attempt to have her 
abandon devious and tortuous paths, to let | affairs of 
state alone and trust them with the secular rulers. 

But when Martin Luther, the doctor of Wittenberg, 
began his work, a new note rang forth — the regenera- 
tion of the individual through the gospel of justifi- 
cation by faith. True, there was salvation for the 
individual soul in the teachings of Wyclif, Huss, 
Jerome, and their followers. But no one can carefully 
read the history of the earlier and later reformations 
without being struck by this fundamental difference 
in the work of the two groups of reformers. The reason 
is found in the Scriptures: God was giving 'Hhat woman 
Jezebel" ''space to repent." 

God Would Have Saved Babylon 

The movement to save the church by pointing her 
to better paths, began in England. In the year 1365 
Pope Urban V demanded that England pay the annual 
tribute of one thousand marks which Pope Innocent 
III had levied on King John. This had not been paid 
for five and thirty years. 

King Edward, therefore, assembled the Parliament 
of the realm of England in 1366 and laid before that 
body the letter of the pope and requested the members 
to take counsel and determine what answer should be 
given. Parliament asked for one day to ''think the 
matter over." The next day that great body reassem- 



68 The Vatican and the War 

bled and returned to the sovereign its memorable an- 
swer. 

The first member to arise spake thus: 

"The kingdom of England was won by the sword, and . by the 
sword has been defended. Juhus Caesar exacted tribute by force; 
force gives no perpetual right. Let the pope then gird on his sword, 
and come and try to exact his tribute by force. I, for one, am ready 
to resist him." 

Quoth the second speaker: 

"He only is entitled to secular tribute who legitimately exer- 
cises secular rule, and is able to give secular protection. The pope 
cannot legitimately do either. He is a minister of the gospel, and not 
a temporal ruler. His duty is to give ghostly counsel, not corporal 
protection. He should follow the example of Christ, w^ho refused all 
civil dominion: The foxes have holes and the birds of the air their 
nests; but he had not where to lay his head. Let us see that the pope 
abide within the limits of his spiritual office, where we shall obey him. 
But if he shall choose to transgress these limits, he must take the 
consequences. Let us boldly oppose all his claims to civil power." 

Spoke the next: 

"On what grounds was this tribute originally demanded? Was 
it not for absolving King John, and relieving the king from interdict? 
But to bestow spiritual benefits for money is sheer simony; it is a piece 
of ecclesiastical swindling. Let the lords, spiritual and temporal, 
wash their hands of a transaction so disgraceful. But if it is as feudal 
superior to the kingdom that the pope demands this tribute, why 
ask a thousand marks? Why not ask the throne, the soil, the people 
of England? If his title be good for three thousand marks, it is good 
for a great deal more. The pope, on the same principle, may declare 
the throne vacant and fill it with whomsoever he pleases." 

The Parliament gave the following unanimous de- 
cision: 

"For as much as neither King John, nor any other king, could 
bring his realm and kingdom into such thraldom and subjection, 
but by common assent of Parliament, the which was not given, there- 
fore that which he did was against his oath and his coronation, be- 
sides many other causes. If, therefore, the pope should attempt 
anything against the king, by process, or other matters indeed, the 
king with all his subjects, should, with all their force and power re- 
sist the same." 

Now from these speeches and the imanimous de- 
cision of the Parliament it is quite plain that there was 
a general repudiation of the doctrine of the temporal power 



''She Repented Not'' 69 

of the pope, and of his infaUibiUty, and of his being the 
vicar of Christ. The members of the House also made 
it very plain that the doctrine of the union of church 
and state is wrong and has no foundation in Holy Writ. 
The papacy saw and heard these doctrines, which con- 
stituted a clear call to her to amend her way and Uve. 
She was urged to leave the civil power to itself, to give 
^^ ghostly counsel,'' and ^^not corporal protection," and 
to quit wooing, wedding, and lording it over earthly 
kingdoms.* 

Nothing can be more plain than that the court of 
Rome held Wyclif responsible for the doctrines the 
Parliament had put forth. In this Rome was absolutely 
right. Wyclif was the king's chaplain at this very time. 
As he studied the Scriptures he saw what the papacy 
really is, and fearlessly he told the king and the nobles 
of the difference between it and Christianity. 

Wyclif understood perfectly that he was accused of 
firing the action of Parhament. Said he: '^Inasmuch as 
I am the King's peculiar clerk, I the more willingly take 
the office of defending and counseling that the King 
exerciseth his just rule in the realm of England when he 
refuses tribute to the Roman pontiff." As the basis of 
his defense he set forth "the natural rights of man, 
the laws of the realm of England, and the precepts of 
Holy Writ." He declares that "already a third and more 
of England is in the hands of the pope. There cannot 
be two temporal sovereigns in one country: either Ed- 
ward is king or Urban is king; we make our choice. We 
accept Edward of England, and refuse Urban of Rome." 

"He spoke and wrote against the worldly spirit of 
the papacy, and its harmful influence. He was wont 
to call the pope Antichrist, Hhe proud, worldly priest 
of Rome,' Hhe most cursed of purse-kervers [purse- 



* For all the quotations in this chapter up to this point not otherwise credited, vide 
Wylie, History of Protestantism, book 2, chap. 3, pars. 2-7; Milman, History of Latin 
Christianity, Vol. VII, book 13, chap. 6, par. 19. 



70 The Vatican and the War 

carvers]/ He says in one of his papers, 'The pope and 
his collectors draw from our country what should serve 
for the support of the poor, and many thousand marks 
from the king's treasury for sacrament and spiritual 
things. And certainly though our realm had a huge hill 
of gold, and no man took therefrom but this proud priest 
collector, in process of time the hill would be spent; 
for he is ever taking money out of the land, and sends 
nothing back but God's curse for simony, and some ac- 
cursed clerk of Antichrist to rob the land still more 
for wrongful privileges, or else leave to do God's will, 
that which men would do without his leave, and buying 
and selling." * 

It will be clear from all the above that the abuses 
in the church at which Wyclif struck were fundamental 
tenets of her policy — temporal sovereignty, union of 
church and state, the placing of civil rulers in subjec- 
tion to herself, etc. Had Rome heeded Wychf's doctrine 
and exhortations, and reformed on these things, she would 
have answered God's call to repent. For the work of 
Wyclif was God calling her to repentance, during that 
time of which he says: "7 gave her space to repent of her 
fornication; and she repented not J' 

And Next Militz of Prague 
The influence of Wychf was felt far and near through- 
out Europe. In no place did his principles find better soil 
for growth than in Bohemia, and especially in the city 
of Prague. Soon his writings were being studied in the 
university of that city. There arose at this time in Bo- 
hemia, a remarkable man, Militz, archdeacon to the 
cathedral in Prague, and chancellor to the emperor, 
Charles IV. Militz spent his life in an attempt to save 
the Church of Rome from the disaster which overtook 



* Vide for above quotations, Neander, History of the Christian Religion and Church, 
Vol. V, sec. 2, part i. 



''She Repented Not'' 



71 




Tower of the Bridge of Prague, to which were affixed the heads of martyrs 



72 The Vatican and the War 

it when its power was battered down by Luther and the 
later reformers.* 

Mihtz, Hke Wychf saw that the church herself, in 
her policies and practises, needed to be reformed. '*He 
learned this from his study of the Word of God. He saw 
from the Bible that either the church must change her 
way, or God would destroy her. He saw that many of 
the prophecies of the Scripture applied to the church. 
He set himself to save the church. 

'^Militz sought to interpret the signs of the present 
by comparing them with the prophecies of the Old Tes- 
tament, the last discourses of Christ, and the prophetic 
intimations in the epistles of Paul. He saw the way pre- 
paring for a divine judgment on the corrupt church; 
he foresaw a renovation of the church by which it was 
to be prepared for the second advent of Christ.'^ 

Soon a burden rested upon him to go to the pope 
and plead with him concerning the great wickedness 
which dominated the policies of the church — ^^To tell 
the pope that he had been called by the Holy Ghost 
to the duty of bringing back the church to the way of 
salvation. '^ In 1367 he went to Rome for the especial 
purpose of seeing Urban V. There he nailed to the door 
of St. Peter's the words: "Antichrist is now come, and 
sitteth in the church." He further published a notice 
that, on a certain day, ho would stand at the entrance 
of St. Peter's and address the people: "that he would 
announce the coming of the Antichrist." 

He did not at this time, however, get a chance to 
preach, for he was waylaid by the Dominican monks, 
cast into prison, and loaded with chains. He was kept 
in prison for a considerable time. 

*'On the Antichrist" 
It is while he was in this prison that he wrote his 
book, "O n the Antichrist," of which he says: "The 

*For all quotations not otherwise credited from this point forward in this chapter, 
vide Neander, History of the Christian Religion and Church, Vol. IX, sec. 2, part i, et seq. 



''She Repented Not" 73 

author writes this, as prisoner and in chains, troubled 
in spirit, longing for the freedom of Chrisfs church, long- 
ing that Christ would speak the word. Let it be and it 
shall be; and protesting that he has not kept back what 
was in his heart, but has spoken it out to the church, and 
that he is prepared to hold fast to whatever the pope 
or the church may lay on him/^ 

The preaching of Militz and his captivity seem to 
have had some effect on the church he was trying to 
save. For when Pope Urban V returned to Rome he 
at once ordered the release of the prisoner. 

The Death of Militz 

At last his enemies, the mendicant monks, framed 
twelve articles which they claimed to be heretical, and 
which they stated they had gathered from his ser- 
mons. These were sent to Pope Gregory at Avignon. 
The pope sent a bull summoning Militz to Avignon. 
He remained tranquil in the consciousness of his inno- 
cence. He placed his trust in the power of the truth of 
God, which he knew would triumph over every assault. 
He went to Avignon in 1374, but died while his case 
was still pending. 

Thus passed away a life which had been nobly devoted 
to an effort to reform the papacy. Through Militz the 
angel of mercy was pleading with the church, but the 
season of repentance was swiftly hurrying by. 

Yastness of the Reform Movement 

This movement ^Ho reform the church'' was not done 
in a corner. Men of learning and power arose all over 
Europe, and filled with holy zeal worked mightily for 
the salvation of the Church of Rome — their own church, 
which they so dearly loved. Militz was not an isolated 
enthusiast, but only a noted figure in a great band of 
noble men and women who would fain have rescued 
Rome from the depths into which she had fallen, and 



74 The Vatican and the War 

brought the healing of Christ to her corrupted heart 
and hfe. 

Conrad of Waldhausen 

Contemporaneously with Militz labored Conrad of 
Waldhausen. He was an Austrian-German and a mem- 
ber of the Augustine Order. Like Militz, he supposed 
that he saw in the antichristian spirit of his times, the 
signs of the last preparatory epoch which was to pre- 
cede the second advent of Christ: and his sermons were 
frequently taken up in directing the attention of his 
hearers to these signs, and warning them against the 
impending dangers, exhorting them to watchfulness over 
themselves, and against the insiduous spread of anti- 
christian corruption. 

Conrad Works for the Regeneration of the Church 

His work for the regeneration of the policies and 
practises of the church was no less striking than that of 
Militz. ^'He was led to contend earnestly against the 
mendicant frairs, who by their mock sanctity imposed 
on the multitude, while they encouraged and promoted a 
false reliance in various outward works. ... He spoke 
with great emphasis against every form of simony, 
but especially against that form of it which was 
stealthily practised under the garb of absolute pov- 
erty by the begging monks.''* 

Religious Bribery is Practised in the Church of Rome 

Conrad of Waldhausen preached much on religious 
liberty, and the folly of trying to make men righteous 
by law. '^No man, he held, could be forced to be virtu- 
ous. All goodness must proceed from free choice and 
conviction." 

In the year 1354 the Dominicans and the Franciscans 
drew up in concert twenty-nine articles of accusation 

*The word "simony" arose from the incident recorded ia the Scripture concerning 
Simon Magiis who desired to buy the gift of the Holy Ghost. 



''She Repented NoV^' 75 

against Conrad. These were placed in the hands of the 
archbishop of Prague, and Conrad was summoned to 
appear. The archbishop convoked an assembly for the 
purpose of passing upon the charges, but on the day ap- 
pointed for the trial no one dared to appear against this 
godly priest. Conrad continued to labor in Prague 
as parish priest of the Teyn Church till his death in 
1369. 

Thus there passed away another man — a member of 
the Roman faith, godly in all his ways and walks. He 
would have dearly loved to have brought salvation to 
the church of which he was a priest. 

Matthias of Janow , 

Fourth in the line of the leaders of that grand gal- 
axy of men who would have saved the Church of Rome, 
was Matthias of Janow\ He was a most learned man 
and his writings exercised a world-wide influence. "In 
his works we may not only find the reformatory ideas 
which passed over from him to Huss, but also the in- 
sipient germs of those Christian principles, which at a 
later period were unfolded in Germany by Luther, al- 
though the latter never came under the influence of 
Matthias." 

Matthias inveighed much against the corruptions 
current among the priests. He delivered a most remark- 
able description of Antichrist which is preserved to the 
present time. 

The Unity of the Church of God 
He wrote much on the principles underlying the unity 
of the church. "While the one commandment of Christ, 
and his one sacrifice, preserved in the church greatly pro- 
mote unity; so, on the other hand, the multitudinous 
prescriptions of men burden and disturb the collective 
body of the church of Christ. Unity among men can 
come only from the Word of God. A forced uniformity 
v/ill of necessity produce nothing but divisions.'^ 



76 The Vatican and the War 

John Huss 

There were many boy babies born into the world 
on July 6, 1369, but the names of none of them have 
been so indelibly engraved upon the tablets of time as 
that of John Huss. He studied philosophy and theology 
at the University of Prague, which at this period en- 
joyed a reputation equal to that of Oxford or Paris. 

In the same year that Huss began to lecture, a young 
knight of Bohemia, Jerome of Prague, returned from 
Oxford to his native land. He was a zealous follower 
of Wyclif, and did his uttermost ^Ho circulate his writ- 
ings throughout the whole country and among all classes 
of people." 

John Huss spoke out boldly against worldly domin- 
ion by the church. He said: 

"It is neither permissible nor advantageous for a pope, or for any 
bishop or clerk whatsoever, to fight for worldly dominion or worldly 
wealth. This may be understood from the example of Christ, whose 
vicar the pope is; for Christ did not fight, nor did he command his 
disciples to fight, but forbade them. The pope ought not to contend 
for secular things. The safer way is to contend spiritually, not with 
the secular sword, but with prayer to Almighty God." 

The Council of Constance 

The year 1414 was the year of the Council of Con- 
stance. The work of John Huss had not been without 
effect, for the great object of the council was publicly 
declared to be ^Hhe reformation of the church in its head 
and member sJ^ The reformer had many friends as well as 
many enemies. "A great longing for the reformation of 
the church had .already spread wide among the German 
people; and this inclined many to look with favor on a 
man who had distinguished himself by his zeal against 
the corruption of the spiritual orders, and for the puri- 
fication of the church." 

'' Faithful Unto Death " 
But in the end the Council of Constance found John 
Huss guilty of heresy. He was called upon to re- 



"She Repented Not'' 77 

cant, which in a most touching defense he refused to do. 

He was condemned to death. When the fire was 
kindled, Huss began to sing in a strong, clear voice, 
''Jesus, Son of the living God, have mercy upon me." 
And with these precious words upon his lips his life 
went out in a death dear unto the Lord of heaven. 

In 1516 his faithful friend Jerome met a similar death 
on the same spot. He went readily and willingly to the 
stake, fearing not the fire nor its tortures. 

The ''space'' which had been given "that woman 
Jezebel'' "to repent" was now drawing near to a close, 
and the word of Holy Writ was about fulfilled — "and 
she repented not." The next great scene was the great 
reformation of the sixteenth century when Luther and 
his colaborers sounded aloud the call: "Come out of her, 
my people." 

Faithful, indeed, had God been to his Word. By the 
learned Wyclif and by Militz; by the pious Matthias 
of Janow and the noble Conrad of Waldhausen; by the 
godly Huss and the talented Jerome, God had called and 
called and called again upon that wandering church 
to forsake her devious ways and evil paths and come to 
him. To the Church of Rome, even as to the great 
Jewish Church of old, out of her own communion the 
Almighty had sent prophets and wise men and scribes; 
but of these, as before, some they had killed, and some 
they had stoned, and all they had persecuted from city 
to city. 

The Sons of the Church 

And it must ever be remembered that these great 
spirits were, to the day of their death, members of the 
communion of the Church of Rome. They were not 
men from outside her fold seeking to come in to reform the 
abuses which had grown up there. For the most part 
they were ordained ministers who regularly preached 
from her pulpits and cared for the sheep and lambs of 



78 



The Vatican and the War 



her flock. It was by the lives and the lips of her own sons 
that God would have saved her. Yea, and for an hundred 
years after the martyrs Huss and Jerome had conse- 
crated their lives in death to the church of whose com- 
munion they were, God still lingered — his angel of 
mercy still hovered over the rebellious people. But in- 
stead of repenting, the men who had charge of her 
affairs ran the church deeper and still deeper into evil 
ways. 

The church would not reform. God would have 




Luther burning the pope's bull 

healed Babylon, but she would not be healed, and now 
the word sounded forth from above through all the 
world — ^^ Forsake her." 

One From Among the Monks 

It was in the dawn of the sixteenth century. John 
WycUf had prophesied long years before that the time 
would come when from among the monks — whom he 
termed the ^Haproot of the papacy'' — there would come 
forth ^^some brothers whom God may vouchsafe to teach, 



''She Repented NoV 79 

who will be devoutly converted to the primitive relig- 
ion of Christ, and, abandoning their false interpretations 
of genuine Christianity, after having demanded or ac- 
quired of themselves, permission from Antichrist, will 
freely return to the original religion of Christ, and they 
will build up the church like Paul.''* 

Martin Luther was that monk. From out the 
Augustine order he came. His work was not to call the 
church to repentance. Never in the forceful manner 
of his predecessors did he do this. On the contrary his 
message was — '^ forsake her." He called upon men 
to reform and preach the everlasting gospel of justi- 
fication by faith. He directed his preaching to individu- 
als as such. He preached to them and called upon them 
to leave the communion of Rome and receive justifica- 
tion through faith. 

"The Babylonish Captivity of the Church" 

In 1520 Luther published his famous ^^ Babylonish 
Captivity of the Church" in which he said: 

"Whether I will or not, I daily become more learned, spurred 
on as I am by so many celebrated masters. Two years ago I attacked 
mdulgences; but with so much fear and indecision, that I am now 
ashamed of it. But, after all, the mode of attack is not to be wondered 
at, for I had nobody who would help me to roll a stone. . . . 
I denie that the papacy is of God, but I granted that it had the 
authority of man; now after reading all the subtleties by which these 
sparks prop up their idol I know that the papacy is only the kingdom 
of Babylon and the tyranny of the great hunter Nimrod. I therefore 
beg all my friends and all booksellers to burn the books which I 
wrote on this subject, and to substitute for them the single proposi- 
tion: 'The papacy is a general chase, by command of the Roman 
pontiff, for the purpose of running down and destroying souls.' " — 
D'Aubigne, "History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century,'' 
Vol. II, lib. 6, chap. 6, par. 5. 

This is perhaps the most scathing denunciation 
which Luther ever made of the papacy, and the words, 
'^I know that the papacy is only the kingdom of Baby- 

*Neander, History of the Christian Religion and Church, Vol. V, under Wyclif , last 
paragraph but one. 



80 The Vatican and the War 

Ion and the tyranny of the great hunter Nimrod/^ 
speak volumes. Differently stated, Luther saw in the 
papacy a satanic scheme for the setting up of one uni- 
versal church in the place of one univeral empire, and 
for the sole purpose of annihilating the truth of God 
in the earth. And that hellish idea, born of the devil, 
Luther, by the grace of God was determined to bring 
to naught. 

During the Diet of Augsburg, Luther wrote to Me- 
lancthon: ^^ There can be no concord between Christ 
and Belial. As far as concerns me, I will not yield a 
hair's breadth.'' 

Thus did Luther take a position of ''no compromise" 
with the papacy. He, after a brief period when the 
light of the gospel first came to him, did not try to heal 
her. He condemned her openly and unsparingly. He 
called men to come out of her. Everywhere he preached 
to the people to forsake her. Her space for repentance 
had come and gone. She had not repented, and now 
the hour of her judgment was commencing. A man had 
arisen who clearly saw that the one universal church 
idea was only the scheme of Nimrod at Babel over 
again. The power of the universal church of Rome 
was now to be broken, and in the place of the universal 
church of Rome there were to be the churches of the 
Reformation. 



■\ 




Photo by Paul Thompson 



The Vatican, Rome 



CHAPTER XI 



" WOUNDED TO DEATH " 

THE Church of Rome has constantly and consistently 
stood for one-man power both in church and state. 
She has ever taught that the two swords which were 
given to the apostle Peter represented the spiritual and 
the temporal power, both of which she claims of right 
belong to her. In other words, she holds that the civil 
government can only obtain its power and authority 
from and through her, and that it is subordinate to her. 
Consequently any theory of civil government based 
upon the consent of the governed and the will of the peo- 
ple, is of necessity opposed to her view. 

In the days of the Emperor Justinian the papacy 
first obtained control of that territory which after- 
wards developed into the Papal States, and this temporal 
sovereignty she has ever held to be necessary to her 
proper power and dignity in order that she might be 
able to treat upon an equal footing with the Great Powers 
of earth. At the present time Rome is making the ef- 
fort of her hfe to regain possession of her temporal 

6 (81) 



82 The Vatican and the War 

power and with it, if possible, possession of the terri- 
tory formerly known as the Papal States. She holds 
that the latter is necessary to the former. Once Rome 
regains these two things, there will be an end of both 
civil and religious liberty. The story of the loss of these 
territories, and the abolition of the temporal power of 
the popes, involves the narration of some experiences 
which occurred between the papacy and the people of 
France. 

The French Revolution 

In 1789 the French Revolution was formally opened 
by the destruction of the Bastile. The revolution 
itself was immediately followed by fierce denunciations 
from Rome. Anathema after anathema was hurled from 
the papal chair, for the French Revolution was a strug- 
gle for civil and religious liberty. Pius VI in the fol- 
lowing language branded as infamous the aspirations 
for equality and political liberty as set forth in the Decla- 
ration of Rights. Here are his words: 

''The necessary effect of the constitution decreed by the As- 
sembly is to annihilate the Catholic religion, and that duty of obedience 
due to the laws. It is in this view that they estabhsh as a right of man 
in society this absolute hberty, which not only secures the right of 
not being disturbed for one's religious opinions, but it also grants 
the license of thinking, speaking, writing, and even of printing with 
impunity in the matter of religion, all that the most unregulated 
imagination can suggest; a monstrous right, which, nevertheless, 
appears to the Assembly to result from the equaUty and liberty 
natural to all men." 

Pius VI treated as chimerical the liberty of thinking 
and acting, and he arose with energy against the re- 
fusal of the Assembly to declare Catholicism the national 
and dominant religion. He announced an approach- 
ing excommunication against all recalcitrants, and begged 
all the bishops of France to prevent the revolution 
from progressing. 

Next, the pope began to arouse the kings of Europe 
against the people of France. By bulls, edicts, and 



"Wounded to Death'' 83 

encyclical letters he warned the crowned heads that they 
must destroy the hydra-headed monster of civil and re- 
ligious liberty which had sprung up in France. 

At this time Austria was the greatest of the Catholic 
powers in Europe, and she immediately turned all 
her strength against the struggling French. Prussia 
threw her weight into the balance against the revolu- 
tion. Russia also declared war. For a while England 
was neutral, but finally she, too, was drawn into the 
struggle. France stood absolutely alone, denounced in 
her struggle for liberty by the great church and by the 
powers of Europe who were to a greater or less extent 
ruled by her. 

The Italian Republics and the Pope 

When Napoleon and his army crossed the Alps, the 
northern part of Italy was largely dominated by Aus- 
trian influence. The center of the peninsula was ruled 
by the pope, the Papal States comprising a goodly strip 
of territory over which the pope ruled not only as spiri- 
tual head but also as temporal monarch. The pope was 
pope, and the pope was king. Wherever Napoleon 
conquered in the northern part of Italy, he established 
small republics; there was the Cisalpine Republic, the 
Cispadane Republic, and the Republic of Genoa. The 
pope was angered at this beyond expression; he denounced 
these republics and the French Republic from whence 
they sprang. He did not content himself with defend- 
ing the great maxims of the church, but he constituted 
himself chief of the reactionary movement in Europe, 
and boldly declared himself conjointly responsible for 
the ancient regime in France. It was under this an- 
cient regime that two-thirds of the land of France be- 
longed to the nobility and the clergy, who, so far as 
numbers were concerned, formed an insignificant part 
of the whole population; and the remaining one-third 



84 The Vatican and the War 

was in the hands of the conmion people, whose poverty 
was most distressing. 

The Itahan provinces subject to the sway of "His Hoh- 
ness" were the worst governed in all Europe. Says Thiers : 

"A superstitious and ferocious populace, and idle and ignorant 
monks, composed that population of two millions and a half of sub- 
jects. 

''Reckoning upon the majesty of his person, and the persuasion 
of his words which were great, the pope had formerly taken a journey 
to Vienna to bring back Joseph II to the doctrines of the church, 
and to counteract the philosophy which seemed to be taking posses- 
sion of the mind of that prince. This attempt had not been success- 
ful; the pontiff, fiUed with horror of the French Revolution, had 
launched his anathema against it and preached a crusade. He had 
even winked at the murder of Basseville, the French agent in Rome. 
Inflamed by the monks, his subjects shared his hatred against France, 
and were seized with frantic fury on hearing of the success of our arms." 
— Thiers, "History of the French Revolution,^' Vol. IV, under "The 
Directory.'' 

The Directory of France commanded General Bona- 
parte, above all things, to make Rome feel the power 
of the Republic. All the sincere patriots in France in- 
sisted on this. The pope, who had anathematized 
France, preached a crusade against her, and suffered 
her ambassador to be assassinated in his capital, 
certainly deserved chastisement. The French gov- 
ernment insisted that the Holy See should revoke 
all the briefs issued against France since the com- 
mencement of the Revolution. This severely hurt the 
pride of the ancient pontiff. He summoned the Col- 
lege of Cardinals, which decided that the revocation 
should not take place. The French government then 
and there determined to destroy the temporal power 
of the pope. 

General Berthier Marches on Rome 

On December 26, 1797, the French embassy in Rome 
was attacked, and young General Duphot, who was 
only anxious to preserve the peace, was fired upon by 
the papal troops and killed. This event produced a 



''Wounded to Death'' 85 

great sensation, and the Directory at once ordered 
General Berthier to march on Rome. He arrived on 
February 10, 1798. His soldiers paused for a moment 
to survey the ancient and magnificent city. The Castle 
of St. Angelo quickly surrendered. The pope, for the 
time being, was left in the Vatican, and Berthier was 
conducted to the capitol like the Roman generals of 
old in their triumph. The democrats, at the summit 
of their wishes, assembled in the Campo Vaccino, in 




Pope Pius Yl taken prisoner by the French 

sight of the remains of the ancient forum and pro- 
claimed the Roman Republic. A notary drew up an 
act by which the populace, calling itself the Roman 
people, declared that it resumed its sovereignty and 
constituted itself a republic. 

Meanwhile Pope Pius VI had been left alone in the 
Vatican. Messengers were sent to demand the abdica- 
tion of his temporal sovereignty. There was no intention 
of meddling with his spiritual authority. He replied 
that he could not divest himself of a property which 
was not his, but which had devolved on him from the 



86 The Vatican and the War 

apostles, and was only a deposit in his hands. This 
logic had but little effect upon the repubhcan generals 
of France. The pope, treated with the respect due to 
his age, was removed in the night from the Vatican 
and conveyed into Tuscany. From thence he was taken 
to Valence, France, where he died, attended by a soli- 
tary ecclesiastic, and for two years there was no 
pope. 

Thus came to an end the days of the papal supremacy 
foretold in Holy Writ. Thus was the papal power 
wounded as it were unto death, as stated in the Scrip- 
tures. 

The Neapolitans recovered the Papal States for the 
pope in 1799. They were retaken by the French in 
1800, restored to Pius VII in 1801, and again annexed 
by Napoleon in 1809. The pope retorted upon his des- 
poiler with a bull of excommunication; but the spiri- 
tual terrors were among the least formidable of those 
then active in Europe, and the sanctity of the pontiff 
did not prevent Napoleon's soldiers from arresting him 
in the Quirinal, and carrying him as a prisoner to Savona. 
Here Pius VII was detained for the next three years. 
The Roman States received the laws and the civil or- 
ganization of France. Bishops and clergy who refused 
the oath of fidelity to Napoleon were imprisoned or ex- 
iled; the monasteries and convents were dissolved; the 
cardinals and great officers along with the archives 
and the whole apparatus of ecclesiastical rule were car- 
ried to Paris. Concerning all of this Fyffe says: 

"In relation to the future of European Catholicism, the breach 
between Napoleon and Pius VII was a more important event than 
was understood at the time. Its immediate and visible result was that 
there was one sovereign the fewer in Europe.^' — Fyffe, "History of 
Modern Europe,'' Vol. 1, chap. 9, par. 27. 

By the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna, 1815, 
the Papal States were reestablished. 



''Wounded to Death'' 87 

A United Italy at Last 

But the freeing of the Papal States from the rule of 
the pontiff would not down. In the year 1846 Pope 
Pius IX ascended the Roman throne. Several times 
his people beseeched him to grant them a republic, 
but the pontiff was obdurate. Once he was beseiged 
in Rome by twenty thousand of his own troops, aided 
by the entire body of the people. The belfry of San 
Carhno was occupied ; from behind the equestrian statues 
of Castor and Pollux, a group of sharpshooters fired 
their rifles; next two six-pound cannons appeared on the 
scene, and were duly trained against the main gate of 
the Quirinal palace. A truce was then proclaimed, 
and another deputation was given an audience with the 
pope. 

The deputation were bearers of the people's ulti- 
matum, and they now declared that they would allow 
*'His Hohness" one hour to consider; after which if not 
adopted, they announced their firm purpose to break into 
the Quirinal, and to put to death every inmate thereof, with 
the sole and single exception of '^His Holiness'' himself. 
The pope yielded, and at once the cry rent the air: 
"The sovereign has given us a republic!'' But no 
sooner had the people dispersed, than the promised re- 
forms were abandoned, and the pope simply broke his 
word. 

On February 18, 1861, a new Parliament represent- 
ing all Italy except Venetia and Rome, met in Turin. 
The kingdom of Sardinia now gave way to the kingdom 
of Italy, proclaimed March 17. Victor Immanuel II 
was declared "by the grace of God and the will of the 
nation, king of Italy." 

The pope refused to recognize this "creation of 
revolution," and excommunicated the criminal invaders 
of his states. Victor Immanuel he denounced as "for- 



88 The Vatican and the War 

getful of every religious principle, despising every right, 
trampling upon every law."* 

Victor Immanuel Enters Rome 

For a while things dragged on. The end came in 
1870. In that year the people of the papal territories 
voted to throw off the yoke of the temporal sovereignty 
of the pope, and to unite with the kingdom of Italy. 
There were 167,548 voters. Of these, 133,681 voted in 
favor of the union, and there were only 1,507 votes against 
it. Still the pope resisted, and the troops of Victor 
Immanuel attacked the pope's own troops, defeated 
them after a slight resistance, and entered Rome on 
September 20, 1870. 

The work which Berthier had begun was completed 
by Victor Immanuel. The battle which had raged through 
the centuries was won to the cause of liberty. The per- 
sistent refusal of the pope to grant popular government 
was the cause of his downfall. The papacy stood op- 
posed to republics on principle, and held to the doctrine 
of the divine right of kings. It was the movement in 
favor of popular government which dethroned the pope 
and lost to him the Papal States. 

*Robinson and Beard, Readings in Modern European History, Chap. XI, p. 130. 




Pope Pius JX 



CHAPTER XII 



"MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT" 

IN THE year 1870 the Jesuit Society of the Roman 
I Catholic Church signalized the triumphant consum- 
mation of a struggle waged during more than three cen- 
turies for the capture of the papacy. In that year the 
^'New Vaticanism'^ was formally constituted, and the 
world was plainly notified of the policy to which it held 
itself committed. 

In the previous chapters of this treatise it has been 
shown how that Rome has ever held that government 
by the consent of the governed is a wrong doctrine; 
that the papacy is supreme above the civil power; and 
that the pope has a right to a temporal kingdom of his 
own — the Papal States. 

The Jesuits and Pius IX 

Under the guiding hand of the Jesuits, Pope Pius 
IX enunciated these doctrines and read them into the 
church creed to a greater degree than any of his pre- 
decessors. The ideas of civil and religious liberty which 
found such a large place in the formation of the repub- 
lic of these United States of America were anything but 
to the liking of the Vatican or the Society of Jesus. And 
when these same ideas took root in France in the days 

(89) 



90 ' The Vatican and the War 

of the Revolution, the papacy became much alarmed 
and, as previously written, denounced the entire move- 
ment and arrayed all the kings of Europe against it. 
But in spite of this, the doctrine of constitutional gov- 
ernment and of freedom of religious worship according 
to the dictates of the individual conscience grew apace. 
The doctrine of absolute monarchy in things civil and 
things religious lost caste the world around, and a day 
of greater liberty in things both 'civil and religious 
dawned for Europe and the entire world. So much so 
that at the present time these same principles hold sway 
in heathen China and Japan. 

But Pope Pius IX and the Jesuit wing of the Catholic 
Church held that the establishment of these principles 
spelled the ruin of society and of the nations. 

It may seem to some that these matters do not hold 
the place of importance in the mind of the Vatican 
which is assigned to them. Far otherwise are the facts. 
The danger is that men will not realize how tremendously 
set the so-called '^New Catholic" and Jesuit minds are 
on overthrowing the new order and reestablishing the 
old. This cannot be too much emphasized. 

" Quanta Cura " and the " Syllabus of Errors " 

On December '8, 1864, Pius IX issued the encyclical 
'^Quanta Cura/' and with it the now famous ^'Syllabus 
of Errors. '^ The keynote of the encychcal is that of 
an alarm — a note of danger — with a call to take up 
arms. The cause of alarm is the ruinous condition of 
society — and the word is used in its political and not 
its domestic sense. According to it the very basis of 
society had been shaken by evil principles, which had 
spread on all sides and raised a ''horrible tempest." 

After many generalities, the first token of ruin in 
modern society particularized is the design manifested 
to check and set aside the salutary force which ought 
always to be exercised by the church, not only over in- 



^'Mystery, Babylon the GreaV^ 91 

dividuals, but also over nations, both ^'peoples and 
sovereigns." The second token is the prevalence of 
the error that the state may treat various rehgions on 
a footing of equality — the error that liberty of worship 
is in fact a personal right of every man, and that the 
citizen is entitled to make a free profession of his belief, 
orally or by the press, without fear of either civil or 
ecclesiastical power. This is condemned as being ^Hhe 
liberty of damnation.'^ The next token of ruin is hostility 
to the religious orders which were estabhshed by their 
founders only by the inspiration of God. It is here also 
inculcated again that all countries have two rulers — 
the universal and the national one, the universal one 
superior, and the national one subordinate; and that 
every citizen of these countries is more the subject of 
the pope than of Jiis prince. 

In order that no violence may be done to the facts 
involved in this matter there will be here quoted a few 
of the ^'errors'' which are set forth in the syllabus. And 
the reader must bear in mind that that which is set forth 
is the error to which the Vatican is opposed, and not 
the thing which the Vatican endorses: 

Section 3: 15. Every man is free to embrace and profess the re- 
ligion he shall beUeve true, guided by the light of reason. 

Section 3: 16. Men may in any religion find the way of eternal 
salvation, and obtain eternal salvation. 

Section 5: 24- The church has not the power of availing herself 
of force, or any direct or indirect temporal power. 

Section 5: 27. The ministers of the church and the Roman 
pontiff, ought to be absolutely excluded from all charge and dominion 
over temporal affairs. 

Section 6: 39. The commonwealth is the origin and source of 
all rights, and possesses rights which are not circumscribed by any 
limits. 

Section 6: 55. The church ought to be separated from the state, 
and the state from the church. 

Now it will be clear from the encyclical ^^ Quanta 
Cura^^ and from the sections cited from the ^^ Syllabus 
of Errors," that the present order of society and civil 
government, according to Vatican ideas, is utterly and 



92 The Vatican and the War 

fundamentally wrong. But the Roman ideas of govern- 
ment were not new to Pius IX. In a general way they 
have impregnated the papacy since the days of Hildebrand. 

"Civiha Cattolica'* 

And, in addition to all this, the idea that the theories 
concerning civil government as held by Rome must be 
actively promulgated has been strenuously advocated 
by the Jesuits for a long time. In the year 1850 the 
Jesuits commenced to publish a magazine in the city 
of Rome, bearing the title ^^ Catholic CiviHzation'^ 
(Civilta Cattolica), in opposition to modern civilization. 
The Catholic civilization, of course, is represented by 
the ideas of government cited above in opposition to 
those condemned by the syllabus. Considering the 
modifications this magazine has already succeeded in 
bringing about in the ideas and even in the organization 
of the whole Catholic Society, they can scarcely be 
charged with vain boasting who call it the most in- 
fluential organ in the world. It consistently teaches 
that the prince as a prince, the legislature as a legis- 
lature, and the nation as a society, are ^^not only to 
believe in the pope, but to he subject to himJ^ 

But in the days of Pius IX things were fast slipping 
the other way, and it was in this position of affairs that 
the seers of the Vatican beheld all human institutions as 
if reduced by a cataclysm to a dark and roaring chaos. 

The Deadly Wound 

Now the Scripture had taught that the papacy should 
receive a "deadly wound.'' The most deadly wound 
she has ever received up to the present hour lies in the 
loss of the temporal power of the pope — the taking away 
of the "Papal States" begun by Napoleon in 1798 and 
consummated by Victor Emmanuel in 1870. This was 
the greatest blow her prestige and her schemes ever re- 
ceived. 



''Mystery, Babylon the GreaV 93 

Now the reason that Rome so greatly hated to lose 
and so dearly longed to regain temporal power over the 
nations and a kingdom of her own in the form of the 
Papal States, is because these, and especially the former, 
are necessary for the carrying out of her most precious 
designs. She designs to enforce her creed on all mankind. 
Without the temporal power this is absolutely impos- 
sible. The temporal power is necessary in order that 
pains and penalties may be visited upon all who do not 
obey her. Without the temporal power it is impossible 
to persecute with imprisonment and death those who 
do not bow the knee. Therefore to regain temporal 
power is vital to her policy. 

"The Terrible Scourge of Continental War" 

Beginning with the days when the Papal States were 
being wrested from beneath her scepter, and for many 
years thereafter, the papacy and her minions have been 
uttering prophecies. They have prophesied over and 
over again that only one result could ultimately come out^ 
of the new movement for government by the consent 
of the governed and for civil and religious liberty. They 
have prophesied all along that the only ultimate out- 
come of this that could come, would be the most horrible 
cataclysm of war and bloodshed the world has ever 
seen. Let the reader ponder upon this and engrave it 
upon the tablets of his mind : Rome prophesied, not once, 
nor twice, but time and time again, that the modern 
ideas of government must end in war, ruin, and wreck 
too frightful to contemplate. And more than this, she 
has foretold many, many times that out of this war, 
ruin, and wreck, the papacy would come once more into 
favor with the kings of the earth, that they would look 
to her for help, and that in the general confusion and 
chaos of those times, she ^'of all the ancient institu- 
tions would remain standing"; that she alone would ''he 
mistress of the field that dayJ^ 



94 



The Vatican and the War 



In the light of the terrific struggle now crimsoning 
and soaking the soil of Europe with the blood of mil- 
lions these prophecies should rivet our every mind; and 
it goes without saying, of course, that the restoration 
of the Papal States and of the temporal power of the 
pope is also a part of the looked-for and longed-for 
fulfilment of these prophetic utterances by the high 
officials of the ancient church. I will append a few 




German army corps marching in the streets of Augsburg 

of these Roman Catholic prophecies, and only a few 
from the many which might be cited: 

"The excited antagonism of the nations of Europe is founded 
on a fact fiill of consolation. Instead of being alarmed, or scared, 
or discouraged by the great sharpening of animosity and the great 
massing together of antagonists, / look upon it as the most beautiful 
sign. 

"Now, when the nations of Europe have revolted, and when 
they have dethroned, as far as men can dethrone, the Vicar of Jesus 
Christ, and when they have made the usurpation of the Holy City 
a part of international law — when all this has been done, there is 



''Mystery, Babylon the Great'' 95 

only one solution of the difficulty, a solution I fear impending, and 
that is the terrible scourge of continental war — a war which will 
exceed the horrors of the wars of the First Empire. I do not see how 
this can be averted. It is my firm conviction that, in spite of all ob- 
stacles, the Vicar of Jesus Christ will be put again in his own rightful 
place." — Archbishop (later cardinal) Manning, at the meeting of the 
League of St. Sebastian, London, England, January 20, 1874- 

It will be noted that this prince of the Church of 
Rome welcomes as a "most beautiful sign" the rising 
anger of the nations which, even in that early day, he 
thought he saw preparing the way for a fearful struggle^ 
To him it was a thing to be welcomed, as, in his 
judgment, it was bound to bring the restoration of the 
Vicar of Jesus Christ to ^'his own rightful place." 

"Mistress of the Field That Day" 

The time for renewing the attempt to put the papal 
principles of government into operation once more will, 
according to a noted archbishop — 

"arrive when this rapid and ceaseless movement, political and 
social, going on under our eyes, and making us daily spectators of 
great and often of unlooked-for events, shall have reached its ulti- 
mate period, to which wiU certainly succeed {unless the last days 
succeed) an entirely new era in the history of the human species. When 
that day comes, I know not what portion of the old institutions will 
remain standing; but sure I am that one of them will have survived, 
though peradventure externally bruised and lacerated. She alone will 
be mistress of^ the field that day and the princes (if indeed the sound of 
that name will still be heard), but certainly the nations, having then, 
after a long and cruel experience, made up their minds that out of her 
there is no well-being, either in this life or beyond the tomb, will demand 
from her the laws of tranquil repose, together with the earnest of eternal 
happiness.'' — The Archbishop of Florence, cited by Arthur, "The Pope, 
the Kings, and the People," p. 349. 

This oracular utterance is remarkable. It is truly 
an Ultramontane classic. The pious prelate prophesies 
the happening of ^'unlooked-for events, '^ possibly "the 
last days." In the wreck and the ruin or, may I say, amid 
the dissolving of the great and powerful nations of the 
earth, as the ''old institutions" become soluble in the 
great crucible of world-shaking events, Vaticanism, 
headed by an infallible pope now clothed with temporal 



96 The Vatican and the War 

power "mZZ he mistress of the field that day J' Princes, 
as now, will be no more, and the people of the earth 
will ^'demand'' (sic) from the church ^Hhe laws of 
tranquil repose, together with the earnest of eternal hap- 
piness." Possibly the non-Ultramontanist may be per- 
mitted to wonder how the church will be able to give 
this ^'tranquil repose" in the light of the events which 
transpired in those olden days when ^^His Holiness," the 
pope of Rome, ^'was the spiritual David, the one shep- 
herd of the one fold — shepherd with sling as well as 
pipe, shepherd with sword as well as with crook," — 
reigned over the Papal States and made John of England 
and Henry of Germany bow the knee. And all this is 
to be again, and is to come as a result of a ^Herrible 
scourge of continental war," and then according to the 
Jesuit Civilta, rapturously gazing through the glass of 
Ezekiel, the words of that ancient prophet will have 
come to pass: 

"I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of 
Israel; and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no 
more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms 
any more at all. . . . And David my servant shall be king over 
them, and they shall all have one shepherd. — Vide exposition of 
Eze. 37: 21-24, Civilta, Series VII, Vol VI, p. 293. 

Here is another quotation from the Civilta which is 
worthy of note. It puts the entire matter in the light 
of an alternative as either the end of the world or its 
salvation by the Vatican Council of 1870: 

"Either, in the indiscrutable designs of God, human society is 
destined to perish, and we are close upon the supreme cataclysm of 
the last day, or the salvation of the world is to be looked for from 
the council and from nothing else." — Civilta, Series VII. Vol. Ill, 

p. 264. 

"Will Entomb Many an Army and Many a Crown" 

Another writing of this same prophecy appeared in 
many Italian and French journals and is said to have 
been originally issued by a bishop as a pastoral letter to 
his flock. It reads as follows: 



"Mystery, Babylon the Great'' 



97 



"Pius IX is still a king, even in the eyes of his enemies, and 
of his spoilers. They are obliged to admit that the unity of Italy 
is not affected, that the temporal power is to be reestablished, and 
that after some profound commotions which, it may be, will entomb 
many an army and many a crown, there will be heard among the na- 
tions, from one end of Europe to the other, a single cry, ' Restore Rome 
to its ancient lords; Rome belongs to the pope, Rome belongs to God.' " 
— Vide "The Pope, the Kings, and the People,'' chap. 10, par. 37, note 1. 

This breathes the same thought as those which have 
gone before. Rome looks for the nations to go to pieces 
in the great struggle which she prophesied would come. 
Everywhere the ^^good press'' gloated over the pros- 
pect of a general broil of nations. These writings showed 




Russian Cossacks resisting an attack 

plainly that it was hoped that the war between France 
and Prussia in 1870 would bring about the consumma- 
tion of the Ultramontane hope. 

" A New Order of Things " 

That there is not only to be a dissolution of society, 
and that out of the wreck, the papacy alone is to sur- 
vive, but that she is to build ^^a new order of things" 
at that time is also taught. Thus a leading Ultramon- 
tane journal put it squarely in these words: 

"The modern state has no living future; it carries its dissolution 
within itself. Upon the ruins of the modern state, the church shall 
again build a new order of things, as she did when the heathen world- 



98 The Vatican and the War 

empire sank in darkness." — Deutsche Reichzeitung, cited in " C/Z- 
tramontanism," p. 97, London, 1874- 

I might go on at great length giving citations cover- 
ing this same point, but the above are numerous enough, 
and the sources from which they emanate sufficiently- 
varied to show beyond the shade of a shadow of a doubt 
that Rome has been prophesying the ruin of society 
and upon that ruin the building by the church of a new 
order of things. 

"We Shall Fight It" 
Nor is Rome sitting down meekly and passively and 
calmly awaiting the fulfilment of her prophecies in re- 
gard to the ''modern state.'' She herself claims that she 
is fighting it tooth and nail. She boasts that she is do- 
ing everything in her power to bring about its ruin. 
Hear the Jesuitical Civilta: 

"We shall fight it with CathoHc associations, we shall fight it 
with the press, we shall fight it in parliament. We shall confront 
theory with theory, morality with morality, school with school, 
the flag of Christ with the flag of Satan raised by the revolution. 
Cathohc societies where they existed are being multiplied, where 
they did not exist they are being planted. The number of Cathohc 
members in the Prussian Parliament has increased beyond hope, 
and in Belgium they have drawn closer together. ^ The struggle against 
the Austrian ministry which favored the revolution has grown hotter, 
and obligations in defense of Catholic principles will be imposed upon 
the future members of the Parliament of England and Ireland. With 
whom will be the final victory there can be no doubt."— Cm7to, 
Series VIII, Vol. I. p. 421. 

Nor is this all. Reinkens, in a Httle work which ought 
to be read by every man who means to understand the 
questions which are to come up — ''Revolution und 
ffirc/ie"— declares that ''the policy of the papacy is 
new revolution.^ ^ And certain it is, that for effecting a 
world-wide revolution, never did instrument exist so 
generally outspread and so perfectly centraUzed, so 
elaborately ramified, and yet so pliant. 



"Mystery, Babylon the Great'' 99 

The Infallibility of the Pope 

The infallibility of the pope as at present taught by 
the Roman curia is a comparatively new doctrine. Its 
advent into the teachings of Rome was intimately re- 
lated to the doctrine of the temporal power of the pope 
and to the doctrine of the ^^destruction of the modern 
state '^ as taught by the Vatican. 

The decree of papal infallibility was proclaimed 
at the fourth public session of the Vatican Council, 
July 18, 1870. 

Scripture was used in an extraordinary manner in 
order to furnish authority for the decree of infallibility; 
and iBishop Pie of Poitiers had an entirely original 
argument derived from the legend that Peter was cruci- 
fied head downward; for as his head bore the whole 
weight of his body, so the pope as the head, bears the 
whole church; but he is infallible who bears, not he who 
is borne. Unfortunately for this argument, the head 
of Peter did not bear his body, but the cross bore both. 

Now this very doctrine of infalUbihty was inaugu- 
rated to lend power to the doctrine of the temporal 
authority of the pope and to the doctrine of the destruc- 
tion of the ^^ modern state.'' But this very triumph of 
absolutism marked a new departure. It gave rise to 
a secession headed by the ablest divines of the Roman 
Church. 

The management of the council was entirely in the 
hands of the pope and his dependent cardinals and 
Jesuitical advisers. He originated the topics which were 
to come up, and he himself selected the preparatory 
committees. He even personally interfered with the 
proceedings in favor of his new dogma by praising 
Infallibilists, and by ignoring or rebuking anti-Infalli- 
bilists. 

More than One Hundred Prelates Protest 

This want of freedom of the council was severely 
censured by liberal CathoHcs. More than one hundred 



100 The Vatican and the War 

prelates of all nations signed a strong protest against 
the order of business, especially against the mere ma- 
jority vote, and expressed the fear that in the end the 
authority of this council might be impaired as wanting 
in truth and liberty — "si calamity/' they said, ^^so 
direful in these uneasy times, that a greater could not 
be imagined." But this protest, like all the acts of the 
minority, was ignored. 

When the vote was taken on the matter, 451 voted 
Placet, 88 Non placet, 62 Placet juxta modum, and about 
91, though present in Rome, abstained from voting. 
Among the negative votes were the prelates most dis- 
tinguished for learning and position, as Schwarzenberg, 
cardinal prince-archbishop of Prague; Rauscher, car- 
dinal prince-archbishop of Vienna; Darboy, archbishop 
of Paris; Matthieu, cardinal-archbishop of Besancon; 
Ginoulhiac, archbishop of Lyons; Dupanloup, bishop of 
Orleans; Maret, bishop of Sura; Simor, archbishop of 
Gran and primate of Hungary; Haynald, archbishop of 
Munich; Ketteler, bishop of Mayence; Hefele, bishop 
of Rottenburg; Strossmayer, bishop of Bosnia and Sir- 
mium; MacHale, archbishop of Tuam; Connolly, arch- 
bishop of Halifax; and Kenrick, archbishop of St. Louis. 

All the above is most important as it shows the noble, 
rugged-minded independence of thought and action of 
many of the noted prelates of the church. If one thing 
above another is clear from the history of the Vatican 
Council of 1870, it is that there were many leading of- 
ficials of the church and thousands of laymen who con- 
sidered that the doctrine of papal infalibility was not 
scriptural, that it ought not to prevail, and that it 
was forced upon them by unfair means and methods. 

Of this sort was that learned Catholic, Johann 
Joseph von Dollinger, who became the leader of the 
"Old Catholic" party and who was excommunicated in 
1871 because of his opposition to the decree of papal 
infallibility. In an address which rang all over Germany 



"Mystery, Babylon the Great'' 101 

and echoed in every corner of Europe, this scholarly 
son of the church proclaimed: 

" 'One hundred and eighty milhons of human beings are to 
be compelled by threats of exclusion from the church, of privation 
of the sacraments, and of- eternal damnation, to beheve and profess 
what hitherto the church has never believed or taught.' So began an 
appeal destined to eUcit proof that large numbers of educated Roman 
Catholics, under all their external quiet, were agitated; and that at 
the same time the masses, whatever little opinions they might have, 
were as to action completely under the dominion of the priests." 
— Friedburg, p. 4-95. AJso reprinted separately in "Stimmen aus der 
Katholischen Kirche." 

And again he said: 

"This pretension, once become a dogma, will evidently have a 
wider scope than the purely spiritual sphere, and will become evi- 
dently a political question; for it will raise the power of the sovereign 
pontiff, even in temporal matters, above all the princes and peoples 
of Christendom." — O'Reilly, "Life of Pius the Ninth," chap. 33, 
par. 56. 

And once more he wrote: 

''This doctrine I cannot accept, either as a Christian, a theolo- 
gian, a student of history, or as a citizen. Not as a Christian, for it 
is irreconcilable with the spirit of the gospel, and with the clear ut- 
terances of Christ and the apostles. It sets up that kingdom of this 
world which Christ refused; it seeks that dominion over congrega- 
tions which Peter denied to all and to himseh. Not as a theolo- 
gian, for the genuine tradition of the church is altogether against it. 
Not as a student of history, for, as such, I know that the persistent 
efforts to give reahty to this theory of worldly dominion has cost Eu- 
rope rivers of blood, has involved whole countries in disorder and ruin, 
has shattered the grand organization of the ancient church, and pro- 
duced and fostered in it the most fatal abuses. Finally, as a citizen 
I must reject it, because with his pretensions to subject states and 
monarchs, and the whole political system to the papal power, and 
by the privileged position it demands for the clergy, it gives occasion 
for endless and fatal divisions between church and state, clergy and 
laity." — Potts " Ultramontanism," Document V. 

Thus spake DoUinger, a state councilor of the Prus- 
sian Empire, and one of the most learned men of his 
time. He suffered excommunication, but he was true 
to his honest convictions, and to the former teachings 
of his church. 



"Mystery, Babylon the Great" 103 

The Franco-Prussian War 

July 18, 1870, the day on which the pope read by 
candlehght the decree of his own infaUibiUty, was also 
the day on which the Emperor Napoleon of France dis- 
patched his fatal declaration of war to Berlin. France 
had been assured by Rome that she had only to attack 
Prussia, and all the Catholics of southern Germany 
would join her. Without the miscalculation at the 
Tuileries caused by these statements, it is not probable 
that the French would have been hurled into the ditch 
at Sedan. 

The pope endeavored to bring about a restoration 
of the < Papal States by means of this war. First an ap- 
peal was made to Germany. While the emperor still 
lay at Versailles, a deputation waited upon him from 
the pope and prayed the victor to flesh his sword anew, 
and destroy the power of United Italy. But Emperor 
William was not deceived. He well knew that if Rome 
only had the power his new empire would be rent in 
shivers in a day. So the army which had taken Paris 
did not march on Rome. Immediately, as if it were the 
most natural and moral thing in the world to do, Pius 
turned, and desired of France — with her right arm 
broken — to draw the sword with her left and cut down 
the Italians. ^'The French met this wicked suggestion 
with humble requests that the Holy Father would show 
forbearance, and not demand services for which they 
were not prepared. '' It was Rome who instigated the 
war against Prussia. When Prussia was victorious 
she had shamelessly turned to her and demanded her 
assistance, and failing in that she called upon her fallen 
protege to get up and fight again. When she professed 
her inability, the Vatican turned its attention to doing 
all in its unaided power to disrupt United Italy. Cer- 
tainly has this ' Voman'' attempted to commit fornication 
with the kings of the earth. But the Papal States were 



104 The Vatican and the War 

not restored, and the ruin of the ''modern world" did 
not come out of the Franco-Prussian War. 

"My Kingdom Is Not of This World" 

Passing now from the history in the case, I pause 
to view for a moment, the merits of it. Is the doctrine 
of the temporal sovereignty of the pope a gospel doc- 
trine and according to the teaching of the Scripture? 
Every act in the life of the Master, bearing on this par- 
ticular thing, shows that it is not. In the record of the 
temptation of Christ in the wilderness it is written: 

"And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, showed 
unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And 
the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory 
of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I 
give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. And 
Jesus answered and said unto him. Get thee behind me, Satan: for 
it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only 
shalt thou serve." Luke 4:5-8. 

Now the Master might have reasoned that if he had 
only held in his hands the reins of civil authority over 
the earth, that he could make the lot of his disciples 
more easy; that legislation could be passed removing 
temptation from the youth, and diminishing crime and 
vice; and that persecution of his fellows could be stopped. 
But the Man of Calvary reasoned not that way, and 
flatly refused the proffered governmental authority held 
out to him by the ^^ prince of this world.'' 

It may be urged that the reason he did not accept 
this kingship was because it was tendered him by Sa- 
tan, and because a provision was incorporated in the 
offer that the Son of God should fall down and worship 
him. But there is another incident in the life of Christ 
which shows that he refused on principle, for of one time, 
when an admiring throng desired to make him a king, 
the Scriptures relate: 

"When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and 
take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a moun- 
tain himseK alone." John 6: 15. 



''Mystery, Babylon the Great'' 105 

And last of all it is written that he answered Pilate, 
the Roman governor, with the words: 

"My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this 
world, then would my servants fight." John 18:36. 

And from all these scriptures it can only be con- 
cluded that the papal doctrine is not the scriptural 
doctrine. 

The Bible and the Papal Prophecies 

The papacy has prophesied a great war — one which 
will ^^ entomb many an army and many a crown.'' She 
has prophesied that out of the wreck and the ruin of 
this vast world-rending commotion she alone will remain 
standing. She is to be ^'mistress of the field that day.'' 
At her hand the repentant nations are to ask ^Hhe laws 
of tranquil repose." 

How does Scripture agree with Rome on these propo- 
sitions and prophecies? More nearly, possibly, than 
with any other prophecies Rome has never made. Listed, 
the papal foretellings are as follows: 

1. A terrible scourge of continental war. 

2. When the war is over, Rome to remain standing, 
''mistress of the field that day." 

3. The restoration of the Papal States is to take place. 

4. There is to be a new order of things. 

And now let us see how these predictions coincide 
with the word of the Scripture. With the first prophecy 
the Bible is clearly in harmony. Certainly there is Holy 
Writ in abundance to show that in the last days there 
will be wars and rumors of wars. Take the words of Joel 
for instance: 

"Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up 
the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: 
beat your plowshare^ into swords and your pruninghooks into spears: 
let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, 
all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither 
cause thy mighty ones to come down, Lord. Let the heathen be 
awakened and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will 



106 The Vatican and the War 

I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, 
for the harvest is ripe; come, get you down; for the press is full, the 
fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes 
in the valley of concision [threshing, margin] : for the day of the Lord 
is near in the valley of concision." Joel 3: 9-14. 

Or take the testimony of the Revelator: 

"And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the 
time of the dead that they should be judged." 

"And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth 
of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth 
of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils working mira- 
cles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, 
to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 
. . . And he gathered them together into a place called in the 
Hebrew tongue Armageddon." Rev. 11:18; 16:13-16. 

Therefore, from the above quotations of Scripture it 
would seem to be only fair and just to conclude that 
Rome has rightly divined the things which are coming 
upon the earth in this respect at least. 

Next, Rome foretells that out of this wreck of na- 
tions she will emerge triumphant. Let us see. In Reve- 
lation 16 there is much said concerning the terrible 
fighting which is to take place during the last days. 
Then the seventeenth chapter opens with the follow- 
ing words: 

"And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven 
vials, and talked with me, saying unto me. Come hither; I will show 
unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many 
waters: with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornica- 
tion, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with 
the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into 
the wilderness; and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, 
full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And 
the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with 
gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand 
full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication : And upon her 
forehead was a name written. Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of 
Harlots and Abominations of the EarthJ' Rev. 17:1-5. 

Without question these verses signify the Church 
of Rome. Note that in the first verse the angel tells 
the apostle John that he will show him ^Hhe judgment 
of the great whore. ^' This chapter, therefore, dwells 



''Mystery, Babylon the Great'' 107 

in particular upon the days of the judgment of the 
Roman CathoHc Church rather than upon her general 
history. 

Of her it is written that she sits upon many waters, 
and in verse fifteen, the meaning of the word '^ waters" 
as here used is given: 

"And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where 
the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and 
tongues." Rev. 17:15. 

From this it would appear that for a while, at any 
rate, Rome will come out first best with the kings of the 
earth, for she is represented as sitting upon many waters 
or nations. She evidently has the upper hand and the 
pope is superior to and above the princes. This is 
what she has claimed as her right. It is also stated that 
these kings ''have committed fornication" with her. 
Certainly kings have done this in the past — they with 
her and she with them. And from events now tran- 
spiring in Europe it would look as if all sides are in the 
same nefarious criminal intercourse again. On this 
point, however, more cormnent will be made in the 
closing chapter. Later on in this same chapter of Reve- 
lation are the following words: 

"And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have 
received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour 
with the beast. These have one mind, and shaU give their power and 
strength unto the beast. . . . And the ten horns which thou 
sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her 
desolate and naked, and shaU eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. 
For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and 
give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be 
fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which 
reigneth over the kings of the earth." Rev. 17: 12-18. 

For a while the kings of the earth are going to give 
their power and strength to Rome. Evidently, the 
wine of her fornication will make these kings and the 
inhabitants of the earth so intoxicated that they will 
surrender the principles of civil and religious liberty, 
of constitutional government, and in general, all the 



108 The Vatican and the War 

ideals of the ^'modern state/' Evidently, in the place 
of the ^^ modern state" they received as their mistress, 
the one who says: 

"I claim to be the supreme judge and director of the consciences 
of men — of the peasant that tills the field, and the prince that sits 
on the throne; of the household that lives in the shade of privacy, 
and the legislature that makes laws for kingdoms. I am the sole last 
supreme judge of what is right and wrong." — Cited by W. E. Glad- 
stone, "Rome and the Newest Fashions in Religion.^' 

In her prophecy of herself Rome says that from the 
wreck and ruin of the nations she will emerge ^'Mis- 
tress of the field that day J' And of her, the Bible says: 
''For she saith in her heart, I sit a queen and am 
no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall 
her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, 
and famine; for she shall be utterly burned with fire: 
for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her." Again 
the Bible says that God puts it into the hearts of the 
kings to agree to give their kingdom to the beast. In 
other words, they turn over to her the reins of the civil 
power, for this it is that constitutes their kingdom. 
And then to the full is she indeed the woman "which 
reigneth over the kings of the earth." 

But there is one part of these conjoint prophecies 
which does not appear in the Vatican edition. The scrip- 
ture cited above teaches that in the end, the kings of 
the earth find Rome's way a bad road. The ''tranquil 
repose" which she so lavishly promised is not forth- 
coming. Instead of this, thunders and lightnings, great 
earthquakes, fire and sword, pestilence, famine, and war 
fill the earth, and men's hearts fail them for fear. "The 
earnest of eternal happiness" which she also promised 
doth not appear. She is unable to bring about the ful- 
filment of this part of her prophecy. The nations tire 
of her rule, and become disgusted, and in their rage they 
"hate the whore," and "make her desolate and na- 
ked," and "eat her flesh, and burn her with fire." This 



*' Mystery, Babylon the Great'' 



109 



piece of the prophecy, I say does not appear in the ver- 
sion of the Roman curia. Cardinal Manning, the arch- 
bishop of Florence, and the Civilta make no mention 
of it. But it does appear in the Revelation of John 
the Divine. It is the truth. It is the everlasting gospel. 
It is the fate of which many of her own most noble 
sons warned her, men like the noble Schwarzenberg, 
the learned Dollinger, the scholarly Hefele, the noted 
Ketteler, the great layman jO'Connell, and a host of 
others. She would not heed their voice, and in the pres- 
ent hour we are witnessing another chapter in her his- 
tory of illicit intercourse with the kings of the earth. 





Off for a raid 



Photo by Paul Thompson, N. Y. 




And a mighty angel took up a stone . . . and cast it into the sea, saying. Thus 
with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down." Rev. 18:21 

(110) 



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Photo by Underwood & Underwood 

French artillery going to the front 



CHAPTER XIII 

"WITH VIOLENCE SHALL THAT GREAT 
CITY BABYLON BE THROWN DOWN" 

The Death of Pope Pius X 

WHEN the present titanic struggle in Europe began 
Pius X was chief pontiff of the Church of Rome. 
It is significant that of all the men who have occupied 
the Chair of the Fisherman he was one of the best. He 
was a God-fearing, kind-hearted priest. Spiritual things, 
it is creditably reported, far more than political matters, 
engrossed his attention. 

At the outset he issued a declaration of neutrality 
on the part of the Vatican, but that neutrality did not 
prevent this simple-minded man from dying — prac- 
tically of grief and horror. His gentle and fatherly na- 
ture recoiled at the awful cataclysm which had come upon 
the world. 

It is said, and very truly, that he possessed an ada- 
mant will where distinction between right and wrong 
was concerned, and thaf he looked upon himself rather 
as the representative of him whose kingdom is not of 
this world than the head of a political state.'' It has 
also been written that ^^had he lived to learn of the out- 
rages against humanity, honor, and Christian civiliza- 

(111) 



112 The Vatican and the War 

tion^' which have been perpetrated during the war, 
*^he might have created consternation in the Vatican, 
and in that 'black' world in which he was always sneered 
at as a peasant, by breaking through the bonds of poli- 
tics in order to assume the prerogatives of his nobler 
calling.'' But Pius X died, and a man of a totally differ- 
ent make-up took his place. A kind God laid him to 
his rest before his soul should be further rent by the dire 
woes of the war-ridden world. 

Cardinal Delia Chiesa — Benedict XY 

Giacoma Delia Chiesa was born November 21, 1854. 
He was descended from an ancient patrician family of 
Genoa. He received his education in his native city, 
where he studied law and graduated at the uni- 
versity. Later he entered the service of the church, 
'Hook his decree in theology, and was finally received 
into the ''Academy of Noble Ecclesiastics, where he was 
initiated into the methods of diplomacy, '^ He readily as- 
similated the knowledge acquired and soon attracted 
the notice of Cardinal Rampolla. When Rampolla was 
appointed nuncio to Madrid, he invited Dr. Delia Chiesa 
to go with him as his secretary. In 1887 Cardinal Ram- 
polla was promoted to be Secretary of State at the 
Vatican and he took Monsignor Delia Chiesa with him 
as his private aide. Later Pope Leo XIII appointed 
him "adjoint State Secretary. '^ For thirteen years he 
held this office, during which time he had abundant 
opportunity to learn all the devious ways of diplomacy 
and diplomats. After the death of Leo XIII and Ram- 
polla' s retirement, he continued in the same work under 
Merry del Val. Later he was consecrated archbishop 
of Bologna. 

From the above little sketch it will be clear that the 
education and training of Cardinal Chiesa would be 
conducive to the formation of an entirely different 
make-up than that of the late Pius X. 



Babylon Thrown Down 



113 




Pope Leo XllI in pontifical robes, borne in state through the Sistine chapel 

Cardinal Delia Chiesa Choice of the Conclave 
The deliberations of the Conclave of Cardinals which 
met upon the death of Pope Pius X for the purpose of 
electing his successor were secret in a stricter sense than 
those of any previous election, ''because known only to 
the cardinals, who were forbidden to disclose them under 
pain of excommunication.'' Suffice, therefore, to re- 
cord that Cardinal Delia Chiesa was chosen to fill the 
office of sovereign pontiff, and assumed the title of 
Benedict XV. 

At once the new head of the church began to strike 
out a fine of action for himself and the Vatican vastly 
different from that of his moderate and retiring prede- 
cessor. And we are told that from the very first his 
course and conduct, as far as matters relating to the 
war were concerned, were "sharply criticized by Catho- 
lics of the allied nations.'' 
8 



114 The Vatican and the War 

He immediately set himself to "the task of making 
peace between the beUigerents." It is not at all surpri- 
sing that he should do this. The great continental war 
which the papacy had prophesied had become an ac- 
tuality. In some way or another, according to the pa- 
pal prophecies, the church was to regain her old-time 
power over the nations, and be ''Mistress of the field 
that day.^' In other words, events were to so trans- 
pire during the struggle that the principles of Catho- 
lic civilization, as opposed to the principles of the 
"modern state,'' would be completely vindicated and 
Rome would come into her own. 

And now the great clock of time had struck the fateful 
hour, and Chiesa had been chosen to steer the ancient 
church to her "manifest destiny.'' And the present 
pope was chosen by his fellow cardinals, it is said, be- 
cause he is "looked upon as a statesman." He "came 
to the pontifical throne with the reputation of a con- 
summate diplomatist, and was credited with a degree 
of political insight and foresight unmatched in the Col- 
lege of Cardinals. We may take it that the reputation 
was deserved." It is further written that the "Con- 
clave, conscious of the gravity of the international con- 
jucture, was anxious to have at the head of the church a 
statesman rather than a pious priest or a careful adminis- 
trator. And for this role Delia Chiesa had no rival." 

It is further said that one needs but slight personal 
acquaintance with the man to acquire the impression 
which closer relations are said to confirm, "that he is 
endowed with some of the essential characteristics 
of the political pilot. A shrewd observer, his easy self- 
control, unflinching perseverance, indomitable will, 
inaccessibility to extrinsic influences, and practical knowl- 
edge of men confer on him advantages which his con- 
summate tact enables him to fructify." 



Babylon Thrown Down 115 

" The Church's Position in the World " 

It is not without deep meaning to the world, to 
nations, and to men and Women individually, that a 
'' diplomat'' and a ''statesman" has been chosen to fill 
the pontifical throne at this particular time. As surely 
as ''the stars in their courses fought against Sisera" do 
all events at the present hour appear to be working to- 
gether for the fulfilment of the prophecies. "Up- 
permost in the mind of the new pope is the church's 
position in the world, and this he believes it his duty to 
improve and extend in everyway." "From the moment 
he took office, he gave a sudden and powerful impetus to 
diplomatic activity." "To put an end to the long 
conflict with France, and renew diplomatic relations 
with her would seem to Benedict XV a triumph of the 
first order." 

Jtaly and the Vatican 

Moreover the time seems propitious for coming to 
an understanding with Italy. The government needs 
the support of the Cathohcs in its poHcy. A moderate 
Liberal is at the helm. The Vatican, in turn, has need 
of friendly relation with the state. If the nation should 
decide on war against the opinion of the Cathohcs, 
a strong anti-clerical reaction would certainly take 
place forthwith. Both sides have been moving toward 
each other. The neutrality of the Catholics, who al- 
most to a man are pro- Austrian and pro-German, has 
become much less violent, and they have cheerfully sub- 
scribed to the milliard loan. The government, on its 
part, has introduced into the new military regulations a 
clause forbidding officers to become members of secret 
societies. This, of course, is highly gratifying to Rome. 
Pope Benedict has also shown the spirit of conciliation, 
by crossing what has always been reckoned the boun- 
daries of his territories and betaking himself the fifteenth 
of January, 1915, to visit the victims of the earthquake at 



116 The Vatican and the War 

Santa Marta. Certainly, the church, with her hierarch- 
ical organization, ^'has become the most powerful 
pohtical party in Italy, and controls a large number 
of deputies, of whose election she is the arbiter." Surely 
the present trend of affairs between the Quirinal 
and the Vatican shadows forth most portentious events 
for the future of both the Roman Church and the Ital- 
ian nation. 

The Maintenance of Vatican Domination 

The policy of the Vatican cannot be fully compre- 
hended only as it is reaUzed that the papacy is bound 
by its principles to put self-preservation and the main- 
tenance of its domination before everything else. That 
is why it is so largely conceded that a victory for the 
Germanic empires in the present war would be for the 
interests of Rome. Some do not understand why Rome 
should look with favor upon the cause of the land which 
cradled Martin Luther and the great Reformation of 
the sixteenth century. The Vatican principle as laid 
down at the commencement of this paragraph, must be 
taken, however, as the key to her conduct, and the 
keystone in the arch of her diplomatic maneuverings. 

It must be remembered that unless Italy be excepted, 
there is not a single Cathohc country among the Al- 
hes. To be sure Belgium has a Cathohc government 
at present, but half the Belgian people are freethinkers. 
England is Protestant; Russia, Serbia, and Monte- 
negro are schismatic; Japan is pagan, and France is 
freethinking. Austria, on the other hand, is the only 
great Cathohc power in the world. If the war cloud 
prove her undoing it would be a great blow to the papacy. 
Should the Austrian Empire go to pieces, Spain would 
be the only Cathohc state left. Certainly Rome could 
not contemplate such a possibihty without a shudder. 

In the case of Germany — it is true that she is not 
a Cathohc power; nevertheless the church is stronger 



Babylon Thrown Down 117 

there than in any other country except Austria and 
Spam; 'Hhe Center party holds the balance of power 
m the Reichstag and, without its support, the govern- 
ment could not control ParHament/' 

Furthermore, Austria and Germany approach much 
more nearly to the papal idea of what a state should be 
than any of the alHed nations except Russia. As previously 
set forth in this treatise, democracy is feared and hated by 
Rome. It is contrary to her whole idea of things. She 
must, by the very nature of her fundamental tenets, 
inchne to the side of autocratic government. At this 
point one pubhcist has said: 

"The democratization of Germany and Austria, which might 
conceivably be a result of their defeat, would leave Russia as the sole 
representative in Europe of the papal theories of government, unless 
indeed Russia herself should be similiarly affected, in which case 
the last representative of authority, as the pope understands it, would 
be gone. The papacy fears that, left to itself in a democratic Eu- 
r^i^^J It would have a very precarious future, and its fears are ius- 
tihed. The papacy and democracy, as the late Monsignor Hugh 
Benson realized cannot permanently co-exist; ceci tuera cela."~Robtrt 
Deit in Fortnightly Review, February 1915, p. 293. 

But if it indeed be true that Rome favors the cen- 
tral Germanic empires, it is also true that she has made 
desperate efforts to enter into diplomatic relations with 
England and with France. This is only natural — the 
Vatican wishes to be prepared for any emergency. This 
has ever been the papal poHcy and it is a cherished one 
today. 

"England and the Papacy" 
After an interval of approximately four hundred 
years, Protestant England has sent an officially accredi- 
ted envoy from the court of St. James to the Holy See. 
The government of the land which boasts of its religious 
and civil hberty has gone as a supplicant to Rome to 
dnnk of the golden cup of her abominations. Time was 
when an English administration would have scorned to 
go cap in hand to the pope to beseech him to take the 



118 



The Vatican and the War 




British Minister to the Vatican, Sir Henry Howard (center) 

side of England. There can be but one possible result of 
the action of the British government ; namely, to enhance 
the prestige of the papacy. As one writer has said — 
^^The papacy is comparatively harmless so long as it 
is let alone; half its power is due to the recognition 
of it by civil governments, and would disappear tomor- 
row if all the states withdrew their representatives 
from the Vatican. There is nothing so intolerable to 
the Vatican as to be ignored; that is precisely the reason 
why every government should ignore it.'' Be this as 
it may, the Vatican courted England and England 
courted the Vatican. The suggestion regarding the 
sending of an ambassador found ready favor within 
the British foreign office, where the Church of Rome 
is well and influentially represented, and Sir Edward 
Grey did not protest. 

The government, it would seem, had some misgiv- 
ings, as to what sort of a reception the scheme would 
receive from British public opinion. The press was 
strictly enjoined from mentioning the matter before 



Babylon Thrown Down 119 

December 12, (1914), when the appointment of Sir 
Henry Howard was officially announced, although the 
French press had been full of it for more than two weeks. 
The matter came as a great surprise to the English peo- 
ple. ''No one realized that, accurately speaking, an 
official representative of Great Britain had never been 
seen at the Vatican until Sir Henry Howard presented 
his credentials; and that although England had been 
represented there, off and on, until the middle of the 
sixteenth century, it was to the newly appointed envoy 
that the honor [sic] fell of being the first official ambas- 
sador — I use the term in its classical sense — 
"from Great Britain to the pope.'' It further shows 
that England, engaged in a life and death struggle for 
her empire, felt that she dare not ignore the political 
power of the papacy, and it marks the folly and puts 
a crimp in the arguments of those who declare that Rome 
and the pope have no standing save only as a spiritual 
organization, and who would make us believe that the 
political power of the papacy has passed away. There 
are many who will assert that the Vatican is a great 
spiritual institution, but I doubt if there are any who 
will deny that she is also, and perhaps principally, 
a great political institution. In these two antagonistic 
phases of her character lie all her power and her weak- 
ness. 

And what shall I say more — Rome — ''that great 
city Babylon"; Rome— "that woman Jezebel"; Rome 
— the "harlot" "which reigneth over the kings of the 
earth," is steadily working away on her old Unes — com- 
mitting fornication with the kings of the earth, and mak- 
ing all nations "drunk with the wine of her fornication." 
Amid all the battle and the strife in the presence of men 
maimed, mangled, and blown to atoms; of innocent 
little children struck down by the sword; of women 
and girls made to endure the tortures of that which is 
worse than death; of Belgium raped, and her own Lou- 



120 



The Vatican and the War 




Climbing out of the trenches for a charge 



Babylon Thrown Down 121 

vain sacked — in terrible sights and scenes — Rome 
toils persistently, unremittingly and unceasingly, with 
a shrewd diplomat and statesman at her head, to bring 
about a state of affairs whereby she can once again 
blight the world with the rule of her baneful system. 
She has prophesied of the present hour. She is working 
with might and main to fulfil those prophesies. 

"Ad Beatissimi" 

On The Feast of all Saints, November 1, in the 
year 1914, Benedict XV ^' by divine Providence 
pope," issued his first encyclical letter. In accordance 
with custom this is named from the first and second 
words of the text — "Ad BeatissimV It is without 
question a history-confirming and history-making docu- 
ment. In the brief review of it which my limited space 
will permit, it will, I believe, be made evident that Rome 
has ^^refurbished and i)araded anew every rusty tool 
she was fondly thought to have discarded"; and that 
she is true to her motto — semper eadem. 

**A Numberless Flock" 

First the pontiff states that the ^^ whole human 
race," ^^a numberless flock, indeed" belongs to him. 
This is an old papal doctrine in support of which the 
words of Christ are used: ^'And other sheep I have, 
that are not of this fold; them also must I bring, and 
they shall hear my voice." This was clearly taught at 
the time of the Vatican Council (1869-70). Greek 
schismatics, Protestant heretics, and other non-Catholics 
were solemnly bidden to ' 'return to the only sheepfold 
of Christ." 

" The Soul of the Common Father of All " 

Next the pontiff comments upon the conditions in 
Europe brought forth by the war: 

"But as soon as we were able from the height of apostoHc dig- 
nity to survey at a glance the course of human affairs, our eyes were 



122 The Vatican and the War 

met by the sad conditions of human society, and we could not but 
be filled with bitter sorrow. For what could prevent the soul of the 
common father of all being most deeply distressed by the spectacle 
presented by Europe, nay, by the whole world, perhaps the saddest 
and most mournful spectacle of which there is any record. Certainly 
those days would seem to have come upon us of which Christ our 
Lord foretold: 'You shall hear of wars and rumors of wars — for na- 
tion shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.' " 

It would neither be right nor courteous for any man 
to question the sincerity of the pontiff in these expres- 
sions of grief. Undoubtedly the milk of human kind- 
ness in his heart is touched by the heart-rending sorrow 
and sufferings of so many stricken men and women. 
At the same time it must not be forgotten that the pa- 
pacy as a system has over and over again in her prophe- 
cies welcomed the war. The words previously quoted 
from Cardinal Manning, who in his loyalty to the in- 
fallibistic and papal world-empire doctrines, outranks 
even the Catholics to the manor born, clearly show 
this: 

"The excited antagonism of the nations of Europe is founded on 
a fact full of consolation. Instead of being alarmed or scared, or dis- 
couraged by the great sharpening of animosity, and the great massing 
together of antagonists, I look upon it as the most beautiful sign. . . . 
It is my firm conviction that in spite of all obstacles the Vicar of 
Christ wiU be put again in his own rightful place." — Archbishop 
(later cardinal) Manning, speech at League of St. Sebastian, January 
20, 1874- 

And the ''most beautiful sign" has now become a 
fact, and in principle, to the papacy the ''fact" must 
be as beautiful as the sign. "The excited antagonism 
of the nations" quoth Manning, "is founded on a fact 
full of consolation"; namely, that out of all the ruin 
and the wreck, out of the womb of the welter of blood, 
Rome is to emerge "mistress of the field that day." 
This is what Rome has prophesied, and she confidently 
awaits the fulfilment of her prophesyings. 



Babylon Thrown Down 123 

Why the Foundations of the States Are Shaken 
And now come some crucial declarations. Those 
which relate to Civilta Cattolica — Catholic civiliza- 
tion, as opposed to all other civilization: 

"But it is not the present sanguinary strife alone that distresses 
the nations and fills us with anxiety and care. There is another evil 
raging in the very inmost heart of human society, a source of dread 
to all who really think, inasmuch as it has already brought, and will 
bring, many misfortunes upon nations, and may rightly be considered 
to be the root cause of the present awful war. For ever since the pre- 
cepts and practises of Christian wisdom ceased to be observed in the 
ruling of states, it followed that, as they contained the peace and sta- 
bility of institutions, the very foundations of states necessarily be- 
gan to be shaken. Such moreover, has been the change in the ideas 
and morals of men, that unless God comes soon to our help, the end 
of civilization would seem to be at hand. . . ." 

"Let the princes and rulers of peoples remember this truth, 
and let them consider whether it is a prudent and safe idea for gov- 
ernments or for states to separate themselves from the Holy Religion 
of Jesus Christ, from which their authority receives such strength 
and support. Let them consider again and again, whether it is a 
measure of political wisdom to seek to divorce the teaching of the 
gospel and of the church from the ruling of a country and from the 
pubhc education of the young. Sad experience proves that human 
authority fails where religion is set aside. The fate of our first parents 
after the fall is wont to come also upon nations." 

Let us analyze these words. More than the ^^san- 
guinary strife . . . there is another evil raging in 
the very inmost heart of human society. ^^ The pontiff 
is not descanting upon some wicked sin sapping spiri- 
tuality from the individual soul. This is a something 
which is gnawing at the very vitals of ^' human society/' 
i. e., at the very lif esprings of the state, for it is in this sense 
that the word is used. Moreover, this evil is the "root 
cause'' of the awful war: ^'The precepts and practises 
of Christian wisdom ceased to be observed in the rul- 
ing of states.'' Consequently, their very ^'foundations 
began to be shaken." 

Now what are the precepts and practises of Christian 
wisdom, according to the Roman ideas, which have ceased 
to be observed? These have been already set forth very 
fully many times in previous pages of this treatise. Ab- 



124 The Vatican and the War 

solute monarchy, is one of them; all sovereigns are subject 
to the supreme pontiff, is another; the pope has a right 
to dethrone kings and princes and to absolve their sub- 
jects from their oaths of allegiance; governments must 
not permit men to embrace any faith but the ^^ revealed 
truth in the Catholic religion"; governments no longer 
teach that the church has the power to use external 
force, or that she has a direct and an indirect temporal 
power; governments no longer teach that the pope is the 
^^ supreme judge and director of the consciences of men — 
of the peasant that tills the field, and the prince that 
sits on the throne; of the household that lives in the 
shade of privacy, and the legislature that makes laws 
for kingdoms; governments no longer teach that the 
pope is the supreme judge of right and wrong; govern- 
ments have been teaching more and more that the church 
and the state should be kept forever separate, and that 
religion should not be taught in the public schools. And 
all these are but a few of the ^^ precepts and practises of 
Christian wisdom which Rome claims have ceased to 
be observed in the ruling of states" and for the lack of 
which their '^very foundations are shaken," and for the 
lack of which Rome holds that ^Hhe end of civihzation 
would seem to be at hand." 

The doctrine of the brotherhood of man is treated 
in the following manner: 

"Never perhaps was there more taUdng about the brotherhood 
of men than there is today; in fact, men do not hesitate to proclaim 
that striving after brotherhood is one of the greatest gifts of modern 
civilization, ignoring the teaching of the gospel, and setting aside the 
work of Christ and of his church. But in reahty never was there 
less brotherly activity amongst men than at the present moment. 
Race hatred has reached its climax; peoples are more divided by 
jealousies than by frontiers; within one and the same nation, the 
same city, there rages the burning envy of class against class; and 
amongst individuals it is self-love which is the supreme law over- 
ruling everything." 

It is true that real true brotherhood among men is 
at a low ebb. But the only brotherhood of man which 



Babylon Thrown Down 125 

would be satisfactory to the papacy would be that 
which would compel all mankind to become members 
of her own communion. This is made clear in a thou- 
sand different ways all through her teachings. It is 
made especially plain by her branding of the following 
propositions as errors: 

1. It is an error to teach that — 

"Every man is free to embrace and profess the religion he shall 
beUeve true, guided by the light of reason." — Apostolic letter, Mul- 
tiplices Inter, June 10, 1851; Allocution, Maxima Quidem, June 9, 
1862. 

2. It is an error to teach that — 

"Men may in any religion find the way of eternal salvation, 
and obtain eternal salvation." — Encyclical Letters, Qui Pluribus, 
November 9, 184-6; Allocution, Ubi Primum, December 17, 1847; En- 
cyclical Letters, Singulari quidem, March 17, 1856. 

3. It is an error to teach that — 

"We may entertain at least a well founded hope for the eternal 
salvation of all those who are in no manner in the true "Church of 
Christ." — Allocution, Singulari Quidam, December 9, 1854; En- 
cyclical Letters, Quanto Conficiamer, August 17, 1863. 

^^Out of the Roman fold there is no salvation'^ 
are the official words of the church; and sure and cer- 
tain it is that as often as a Roman theologian has ven- 
tured to print a book upholding a milder doctrine, or 
explaining away the more rigid one, he has at once been 
silenced, and his book put upon the Index Expurga- 
torius as being infected with liberalism and laxity of 
opinions. Verily indeed as the mania in a few despots 
of building up huge empires has brought upon the world 
evils untold, so the mania of creating a church, one and 
uniform in everything, has brought forth intolerance, 
inquisition, religious wars, hatred, persecutions, and 
every sort of outrage against the liberty of mankind. 

And against all liberalism and innovations Ad Bea- 
tissimi inveighs. Different schools of thought are not 
to be permitted within the fold. Thus: 

"It is, moreover, our will that CathoUcs should abstain from 



126 The Vatican and the War 

certain appellations which have recently been brought into use to 
distinguish one group of Catholics from another. They are to be 
avoided not only as 'profane novelties of words/ out of harmony with 
both truth and justice, but also because they give rise to great trouble 
and confusion among Cathohcs. Such is the nature of Cathohcism 
that it does not admit of more or less, but must be held as a whole 
or as a whole rejected: This is the CathoHc faith, which, unless a 
man beUeve faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved." 

To none of the above does the present pope show any 
quarter. Professor Loisy, Romolo Murri, and all their 
school are anathema to him. And Benedict XV has 
founded a committee for the encouragement of the ^'good 
press/' and has signified his intention of using it to the 
fullest. 

"The Church Has Not Enjoyed Full Freedom" 

The pontiff closes the encyclical with a prayer for 
the fulfilment of that desire dearer than all others to 
the heart of the Vatican — a plea for the restoration 
of the church to temporal authority as in the days of 
old. Hear him: 

"For a long time past, the church has not enjoyed that full free- 
dom which it needs — never since the sovereign pontiff, its head, 
was deprived of that protection which by divine Providence had in 
the course of ages been set up to defend that freedom. Once that safe- 
guard was removed, there followed, as was inevitable, considerable 
trouble amongst Catholics; all, from far and near, who profess them- 
selves sons of the Roman Pontiff rightly demand a guarantee that the 
common father of all should be, and should be seen to be, perfectly 
free from all human power in the administration of his apostolic 
office. And so while earnestly desiring that peace should soon be 
concluded amongst the nations, it is also our desire that there should 
be an end to the abnormal position of the head of the church, a posi- 
tion in many ways very harmful to the very peace of nations. We 
hereby renew, and for the same reasons, the many protests our pre- 
decessors have made against such a state of things, moved thereto 
not by human interest, but by the sacredness of our office, in order 
to defend the rights and dignity of the Apostolic See." 

This is the real hope of Rome. It is this that she 
confidently works for, watches, and waits to obtain. This 
is the war of which she prophesied, and prophesied 
that out of all the ruin and the wreck which would fol- 



Babylon Thrown Down 127 

low in its wake, she would emerge "mistress of the 
field that day.'^ This is why in every possible way 
she is invading the field of politics and diplomacy. 
This is why she courts and coquettes all the belliger- 
ents at once. This is why the Kaiser is declared 
to be "a, man of God/' and why England is invei- 
gled into sending Sir Henry Howard as ambassador 
to the Vatican; and why Benedict desires to reopen 
diplomatic relations with France, and why Rome gen- 
erally offers her good offices to all the belligerents as 
arbitrator and mediator amongst them. If Rome can 
only exalt herself to this role she will have cleared for 
herself the path to that high pinnacle of fame and power 
to which she longs to exalt herself. World-empire over 
princes and potentates, and the souls and bodies of men 
and women, will be hers. She will live ^^deliciously," 
^'sit a queen," ''be no more a widow,'' and ''see no 
sorrow." And thus she will fulfil her own prophecy con- 
cerning herself. Bending the knee to her, the peoples of 
the earth will come and will seek from her hand "the 
laws of tranquil repose, together with the earnest of eternal 
happiness.'^ 

But a greater than Rome has spoken, a mightier 
than the Vatican has decreed. Two thousand years 
ago to John the Beloved on the lonely Isle of Patmos, 
the Eternal One gave a vision concerning the end of 
"the woman" which is "that great city, which reign- 
eth over the kings of the earth." Now hear the seer 
of Patmos speak: 

"And after these things I saw another angel come down from 
heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his 
glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon 
the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, 
and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and 
hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath 
of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed forni- 
cation with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through 
the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from 
heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers 



128 The Vatican and the War 

of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have 
reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Re- 
ward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double 
according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her 
double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, 
so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, 
I sit a queen and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore 
shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; 
and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God 
who judgeth her. And the kings of the earth, who have committed 
fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and la- 
ment for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, standing 
afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city 
Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come." 
"And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great mill-stone and 
cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city 
Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all." Rev. 
18: 1-10, 21. 

A little time of great prosperity and glory is un- 
doubtedly before the Vatican and the system which the 
Vatican represents; but it will not be for long; for with 
violence shall she be thrown down, and ^^ shall he 
found no more at alV^ And to the thousands of honest- 
hearted men and women within her fold the Saviour's 
voice is calling: ''Come out of her, my people, that ye 
be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of 
her plagues.'' 

True the kingdoms and nations of this world are 
soon to go down in ruin and in wreck, and in the place 
thereof ''shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which 
shall never be destroyed." 

"He which testifieth these things saith. Surely I 
come quickly. Amen. Even so, come. Lord Jesus." 



W98 










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